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SERMONS 



WILLIAM J. SHREWSBURY. 



SERMONS 



PREACHED 



ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, 



3MIana of SSar6aftot0, 



BY WILLIAM J. SHREWSBURY. 



By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report , As deceivers, and yet true. 

2 Cor. vi. 8. 



LONDON. 

PUBLISHED BY BUTTERAVORTH AND SON, FLEET-STREET 
AND BST KERSHAW, PATERNOSTER-IIO W 
AND CITY-ROAD, 



1825. 



&** 



<&& 



<o 6 



•b*> S \ 



James Nichols, Printer. 

2, Warwick Square, Newgate Street. 



TO THE 
SOCIETY AND CONGREGATION 

OF 

WESLEYAN METHODISTS, 

IN THE 

ISLAND OF BARBADOES, 

THIS VOLUME 

3fi vtfytttivillp Jnsmfcetr, 

BY THEIR LATE PASTOR, 
AND EVER AFFECTIONATE CHRISTIAN FRIEND AND BROTHERj 

WILLIAM J. SHREWSBURY, 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



THE following Sermons were all delivered in the 
Island of Barbadoes ; the twelve former in the Metho- 
dist Chapel in Bridge-town, the two latter on different 
Estates in that Colony. They are now made public ■, that 
the world may judge of the character and tendency of 
those Doctrines which the Wesleyan Missionaries preach 
in the West Indies ; and that the Members of the Metho- 
dist Society in Barbadoes, may, by a recollection of what 
they have formerly heard, be encouraged to persevere in 
their Christian profession. 



CONTEN T S. 



Sermon I. — Naaman Cleansed. 

2 Kings, v. 13. And his servants came near, and spake 

unto him, and said, My Father, if the prophet, fyc. 9 

Sermon II. — Moses' Last Words. 

Deuteronomy xxxiii. 26 — 29- There is none like unto 

the God of Jeshurun, who rideth, tyc. - 31 

Sermon III. — The Awakened Sinner's Struggles. 

Rom. vii. 7 — 25. What shall I say then ? Is the law 

sin ? God forbid ! Nay I had not known sin, 8$c. 59 

Sermon IV. — Elijah's Translation. 
2 Kings ii. 12. And Elisha saiv it, and he cried, fyc. - 94 

Sermon V — On the Pleasures of Sin. 
Heb. xi. 25. The Pleasures of Sin for a season - 143 

Sermon VI. — God's Everlasting Decree. 
Ezek. xxxiii. 11 . As I live, saith the Lord God, fyc. - 164 

Sermon VII. — A Fast-Day Sermon. 

Amos iv. 11, 12. Yet have ye not returned unto me, 

saith the Lord : Therefore, thus will I do, fyc. - 209 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Sermon VIIL — .Methodism Explained. 

John xviii. 19, 20. The High Priest then asked Jesus 

of his disciples and of his doctrine, fyc. -241 

Sermon IX. — On Having the Spirit of Christ. 

Rom. viii. 9- Now if any man have not the Spirit of 

Christ, he is none of his - - - 289 

Sermon X. — Lazarus' Resurrection. 

John xi. 43, 44. And when he had thus spoken, he cried 

with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth, fyc. - 316 

Sermon XI. — On Humility. 
1 Peter v. 5. Be clothed with Humility - - 342 

Sermon XII.— Hope for the Penitent. 

Isaiah xliii. 25, 26. /, even I, am he that blotteth out 

thy transgressions for mine own sake, fyc. - 371 

Sermon XIII. — The Gospel Command. 

Acts xvii. 30, 31. And the times of this ignorance God 
winked at, but now commandeth all men every 
where to repent, fyc. - - - - 401 

Sermon XIV. — Christ 'our Saviour, Example, and Judge. 
Heb. xii. 2. Looking unto Jesus ■* - - 414 



SERMON I. 
NAAMAN CLEANSED. 



And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said. My father > 
if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have 
done it ? How much rather then when he saith to thee, Wash, and be 
clean ! — 2 Kings v. 13. 

The history of Naaman is exceedingly interesting, and 
full of useful information. The whole of it is con- 
tained in the chapter whence the text is taken ; so that 
this portion of holy writ is not immediately connected, 
either with the preceding, or with the following chap- 
ters. 

V 

Naaman Was a Syrian by birth : This circumstance 
shews, that the favour of the God of Israel was by no 
means confined to the Jewish nation ; but that he some- 
times chose to distinguish individuals of Gentile origin, 
with peculiar tokens of his goodness, even beyond the 
Jews. To this remarkable fact our Saviour referred, 
in a most forcible manner, when discoursing to the 
haughty sons of Abraham in the synagogue at Naza- 
reth : — " I tell you of a truth, many lepers were in 
Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet ; and none 
of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.'" 
(Luke iv. 25— 27.) 

Naaman was " a great man with his master, the King 
of Syria :" (Ver. 1.) He was great in wealth, in honour, 

B 



10 SERMON I. 

and in valour. He had rendered the most essential 
services to his country in a time of extreme danger ; 
for " by him the Lord had given deliverance [or salva- 
tion] to Syria." But worldly greatness could not ex- 
empt him from affliction and disease ; he was subject to 
the most loathsome of diseases, for Naaman was " a 
leper." That his leprosy was of the worst kind, and by 
human means incurable, appears from his anxiety to 
obtain healing, even from the prophet of a nation 
whom the Syrians hated, and with whom they were 
frequently at war. Could Naaman have been cured in 
3iis own country, he would not have applied to a prophet 
of the God of Israel. The severity of his disease may 
be also seen in the punishment of Gehazi. (Ver. 27 ; 
compared with Numb. xii. 10 — 15.) 

The means by which Naaman was brought to be 
acquainted with the miraculous gifts of Elisha is related 
with great simplicity. " The Syrians had gone out by 
companies, and had brought away captive out of the 
land of Israel, a little maid ; and she waited on 
Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress 5 
Would God, my lord were with the prophet that is in 
Samaria ; for he would recover him of his leprosy ! And 
one went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus 
said the maid that is of the land of Israel? (Verses 2 — 4.) 
Here we see a striking instance of the providence of 
God, in over-ruling the calamities of war, so as even by 
its means to promote the good of mankind. It was 
cruel and unjust for those plundering parties of the 
Syrians, to devastate the country, and take captive the 
unoffending inhabitants of the bordering towns of Israel. 
But while God permitted so great an evil for the 
punishment of Israel's sins, he made it subservient to 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 11 

his own wise and gracious purposes, by directing the 
steps of this innocent, captive maid to Naaman's house. 
As God had designed to afford Naaman an opportunity 
of being healed, he did not think fit, in consideration of 
his earthly greatness and dignity, to order a splendid 
embassy, prepared with great outward pomp, to be sent 
to Naaman, to inform him that so noble a person as he 
was might be cured by his servant Elisha ; but the 
whole event was left to a variety of apparently fortui- 
tous circumstances, and at last was brought about in a 
manner seemingly accidental : The young bond-servant 
uttered such and such words, and one went in, and told 
them to his lord. God is always working in every 
place, by every person. He accomplishes the greatest 
events by the simplest means. It is the wisdom of a 
Christian man to observe, as far as possible, a whole 
providence ; to fix the mind, not only on some great and 
extraordinary result, but to trace that result to its cause 
or causes, that he may see how " all things work toge- 
ther for good to them that love God, to them who 
are the called according to his purpose. 1 ' (Rom. viii. 
28.) 

How happy is it for masters to have in their service 
those who truly fear God ! A religious servant is a 
great treasure. Though this young Israelitish maid 
was in the service of those who were the enemies of her 
county,' nothing but good-will towards them reigned in 
her heart. She knew, that the same holy and exalted 
principle was possessed by the prophet Elisha ; that 
when he saw Naaman the leper, he would forget that 
this Naaman was also a Syrian ; and that he would im-^ 
mediately attempt to effect a cure. The work of God 
the Spirit in the soul of man is the same in all ages of 
b2 



1£ - SERMON I. 

the world. The forgiveness of private, or of national 
injuries, is not peculiar to the Christian dispensation ; 
it has been finely exemplified by many holy men of old. 
— In the case of this captive maid, we discover also the 
great importance of early instruction in the things of 
God. We may reasonably conclude, that her parents 
possessed genuine piety in the degenerate age in which 
they lived. Hence she was taught to " remember her 
Creator in the days of her youth ;" was made acquainted 
with the character of Elisha, and perhaps in her child- 
hood might have had an opportunity of attending his 
ministrations. When her parents were conveying in- 
struction to her infant mind, they could not foresee that 
their little daughter would afterwards become a captive 
in " a strange land ;" but they were preparing her for 
the adversity that was unforeseen. Religion sanctifies 
all states, and all conditions in life ; because it sanctifies 
the heart, and so enables man to learn " in whatsoever 
state he is, therewith to be content. r> Hence this young 
female retained her piety, in the midst of idolaters; 
and was not without a source of comfort in her capti- 
vity, while she was rendered the instrument of bringing 
great glory to God, and of advancing the good of man. 
It seems that after Naaman had heard the words of 
his bond-servant, he told them to his master the king 
of Syria. The king of Syria immediately thought, 
that a celebrated man, like Elisha, would be found 
at the court of his prince; or that, if not already 
there, he might be sent for, since the great man, 
Naaman, could not so far forget his rank, as to wait 
on a private person. " The king of Syria, therefore, 
said, Go to, go, and I tvill send a letter unto — the King 
of Israel,'''' (verse 5,) not to the prophet of Israel. And 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 13 

he seems to have further supposed, that if the prophet 

had performed the cure, the monarch would at least 

have all the honour of it ; therefore he wrote after this 

manner, — " I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, 

that thou may est recover him of his leprosy." (Verse 6.) 

The letter which Naaman bore to the court of Israel 

probably made no mention of the name of Elisha, the 

monarch of Syria writing as a king to a king. If this 

were the case, we may the less wonder at the dismay of 

the pusillanimous king of Israel, who, when he had read 

the letter, rent his clothes, and in the deepest distress, 

exclaimed, "Am I God, to kill, and to make alive, that 

this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his 

leprosy ? Consider, I pray you, and see how he seek- 

eth a quarrel against me. 1 ' (Verse 7.) 

Elisha, the man of God, heard all these things. 
And doubtless, he spread the whole matter before the 
Lord in fervent prayer ; and having obtained divine 
direction, he sent a message to the king of Israel, 
saying, " Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes ? ]uet 
him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a 
prophet in Israel.*" (Verse 8.) This message must have 
been deeply mortifying to Naaman's pride. " What ! 
must I wait on him for a cure ?" — Yes ; for humbling 
goes before healing. — His disease was deep, and his 
necessity very great. So, there being no alternative, 
"Naaman came with his horses, and with his chariot;" 
— came in state, with a numerous retinue, and having 
arrived at the prophefs humble dwelling, he did not 
descend and enter the house, but " stood at the door." 
(Verse 9.) Having received intelligence of his arrival, 
Elisha did not even come to the door to address himself 
personally to Naaman, but " sent a messenger unto him, 

b 3 



14 SERMON I. 

saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy 
flesh shall come again to thee, and tfiou shalt be clean? 
(Verse 10.) Was not the prophet on this occasion 
wanting in courtesy ? Did he not " behave himself 
unseemly," by " not rendering honour to whom honour 
was due ?" In no wise. Elisha was a man of much 
prayer ; and he gave himself more than ordinarily to 
the exercise of this duty, when, by his direction, Or 
subordinate agency, any miraculous act was about to 
be performed. See him about to raise the widow's son : 
" He went in, and shut the door upon them twain, and 
prayed unto the Lord." {% Kings iii. 33.) It is likely, 
therefore, that when Naaman came to him, Elisha was 
pleading with the God of Israel on his behalf, that he 
might be directed what answer to give, and that the 
extraordinarily appointed means might be eifectual to 
his cure. It was the praying faith of Elisha which gave 
efficacy to Jordan's stream. 

Had Naaman known in what manner the prophet was 
employed, how little reason would he have had to 
become angry ! But pride can never bear even the ap- 
pearance of neglect. Hence Naaman was wrath, and 
went away, and said, " Behold I I thought he will surely 
come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the 
Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and 
recover the leper? (Verse 11.) Here the pride of his 
heart fully exposes itself; all its secret workings are 
made manifest, while " out of the abundance of his heart 
his mouth speaketh." While journeying from the court 
of the king of Israel, at Samaria, to the dwelling of the 
prophet, he had been full of vain imaginations, and, in 
his own mind, prescribing the method of his cure. 
He did not reason thus—" Behold ! I am a poor, vile, 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 15 

** loathsome leper, altogether helpless, and utterly un- 
" worthy of so great a blessing, as that of being healed, 
" and made whole ; I will therefore thankfully receive 
" that healing by any means, or in any way, that the 
" God of Israel may be pleased in his infinite mercy to 
" choose for me :" — But, says he, " Behold, I thought 
he will surely come out to me ;" he thought it a certainty, 
that the prophet would shew that mark of respect to so 
dignified a man ; " and stand,'" not ascend into his cha- 
riot, (that would be unbecoming freedom,) but " stand, 
and call on the name of the Lord his God ;" for though 
a Heathen, Naaman conceived, that such a work could 
not be wrought without prayer, and that in this case it 
must be prayer offered up to Jehovah Elohim : And 
he further adds, " I thought he would strike his hand 
over the place, and recover the leper." Remarkable 
words ! He affects to consider his leprosy as only partial, 
being unwilling to own the extent of this awful disease. 
It is not improbable, that Naaman had obtained some 
knowledge of the Jewish history. He might have 
heard, that Moses performed his miracles by stretching 
out the rod of his God in his hand toward heaven ; or, 
that the Jewish priests, in presenting some of their of- 
ferings, were accustomed to wave them up and down 
before the Lord : And, supposing that there was 
some mysterious virtue in that act, in allusion to one or 
both of those instances, Naaman might think that the 
prophet would adopt the same practice, and strike his 
hand, or, as the margin reads* " move it up and down 
over the place, and so recover the leper." 

The message of the prophet at once shewed, that all 
bis reasonings on the subject of a cure were futile and 
vain; that God's method was quite different from that 



16 SERMON I. 

which originated in his own heart. To that divinely- 
appointed method he could not yet submit. It enkin- 
dled the fire of his national pride : " If waters cleanse, 
" may I not be cleansed in the rivers of my own country \ 
" instead of being indebted to the waters of Israel ?" 
"Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better 
than all the waters of Israel f May I not wash in them 
and be clean 9 So he turned and went away in a rage."" 
(Verse 12.) 

But it was happy for Naaman, that, though he was a 
haughty and passionate man, yet, when the gust of pas- 
sion was over, he was not unwilling either to listen to 
reason, or to receive advice from his own domestics, when 
it was respectfully offered. " And his servants came near, 
and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the pro- 
phet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not 
have done it ? How much rather then, when he saith to 
thee, Wash and be clean? (Verse 13.) Was not this sea- 
sonable advice suggested to their minds by the Holy Spirit 
of God ? And did not that same Spirit accompany it, 
when offered, with his own gracious influence on the 
mind of Naaman ? And in both instances was not that 
grace vouchsafed, chiefly in answer to Elisha^s supplica- 
tions, who was probably still on his knees, in his secret 
chamber, waiting before the Lord ? — Naaman attended 
to the judicious counsel of his domestics : " He went 
down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, ac- 
cording to the saying of the man of God ; and his flesh 
came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he 
was clean." (Verse 14.) He obeyed, and was made 
whole : And it appears probable, that Naaman was not 
only cleansed from his leprosy, but that his heart also 
was changed, and that he was cleansed from his sins; 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 17 

that He who healed all his diseases, had likewise forgiven 
him all his inquiries. 

That a great moral change was experienced by Naa- 
man, is apparent from the rest of his history. His 
pride was gone. God had humbled his soul, so that in a 
spiritual sense he came out of Jordan as fi a little child." 
Hence he did not immediately go back from Jordan to 
Syria, but he returned to the prophet ; and instead of 
coming to his door with his horses and his chariot, 
expecting Elisha to come out to him, he alighted and 
went in to the prophet's dwelling, and, in the presence 
of all his retinue, " stood before" Elisha ; and besought 
him to receive, not gifts, or a donation, but " a blessing" 
from him; — a gratitude-offerings by way of acknow- 
ledgment of the great obligation he was under to the 
servant of the most high God. Yea, and this same 
Naaman afterwards " alighted down from his chariot to 
meet Gehazi," who was only a servant of the prophet, 
and anxiously inquired of him, U I$ all well ?" (Verse 21.) 
Naaman did also then acknowledge the God of Israel to 
be the only true God ; (verse 15 ;) and expressed his 
determination in future " to offer neither burnt-offering 
nor sacrifices unto other gods, but only unto Jehovah." 
(Verse 17.) And although the 18th verse* may present 

* Eighteenth verse. " In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that 
when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and 
he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon ; when 
I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant 
this thing.'' — Several learned men would remove the difficulty by reading 
this verse in the past tense. But the form of the verb rPD'j which occurs 
twice, is clearly future ; nor is there a conversive i either time, to give it a 
past signification. Naaman had expressed his general determination just 
before :— " Thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor 
sacrifice to other gods, but only unto Jehovah !" (Verse 17.) He now wished 



18 



SERMON I. 



some difficulties that we are not able to solve, yet the 
answer of the prophet, — " Go in peace,' 1 ''- -may assure us, 
that Elisha was satisfied with the sincerity of Naaman's 
professions, and the lawfulness of all his future designs : 
Without the fullest conviction of which, the prophet 
would have never bid him God speed, or to go in peace, 
On the whole, therefore, we may conclude, that Naaman 
was healed both in body and soul ; and that he and the 
prophet are now enjoying the same glory, and adoring 
Him who is the God of their salvation. 

to know whether the exception might be granted on one particular occasion, 
when he had to attend his master as he worshipped in the house of Rim- 
mon. Now this was no proof either of Naaman's insincerity, or of his 
want of decision ; but rather of the tenderness of his conscience, and of the 
teachableness of his disposition, since he had become a new creature. 
This was a point about which any one in his circumstances, just renouncing 
Heathenism, would naturally be perplexed ; he therefore desired to be 
thoroughly instructed concerning it, before he left the prophet. Now we 
must suppose, that on such a deeply momentous subject, agitated too as it 
was in the presence of Naaman's retinue, most of whom were originally 
idolatrous, Elisha would not fail to supply him with such abundant infor- 
mation, as should clearly point out his duty. It is true, the Holy Spirit 
has not thought fit to preserve the prophet's instructions on this matter in 
the sacred volume. They are not necessary for us; nor were they for the 
Jews, seeing they had the second commandment of the moral law con- 
stantly taught them. The words, therefore, of the prophet — " Go in peace" 
. — are not to be considered as his immediate reply to Naaman ; but rather 
as his parting benediction, after he had taught him out of the law ; and 
after Naaman had expressed, as we may reasonably suppose, his willing- 
ness to be obedient to its precepts. 

Naaman made a singular request to the prophet : — " Shall there not be 
given to thy servant two 'mules' burden of earth V (Ver. 17«) Was this're- 
quest the result of extraordinary veneration for the man of God ; so that he 
desired to build in Syria an altar to Jehovah, not merely from the sacred 
earth of Israel, but from some portion of that earth which the prophet 
Elisha might have preserved of his own patrimony, when he left the oxen 
and the plough to follow Elijah ? 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 19 

Having thus attempted to illustrate the history of 
Naaman, we shall now proceed more particularly to offer 
a few remarks on the words of the text, and improve 
them to our present edification. We have set before us 

I. The gospel method of salvation : " Wash and be 
clean" 

II. That method of salvation is recommended by a 
most powerful, and convincing argument : " My Father ; 
if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest 
thou not have done it f How much rather then, when he 

to thee, Wash and be clean." 



I. The gospel method of salvation. 

" God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." (John hi. 16.) " This 
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" 
(1 Tim. i. 15.) Of the plan of salvation, as exhibited in 
these scriptures, the words of our text will afford a 
striking elucidation. 

1. That method of salvation is exactly suited to the 
moral condition of man. — Man is by nature sinful and 
depraved ; he needs pardon and purity. His heart is 
not merely void of goodness, it is full of evil ; " a corrupt 
tree bringeth forth corrupt fruit." The unholiness that 
exists in the heart is not quiescent, it is active and stir- 
ring: The impure fountain sends forth its defiling 
streams in every direction ; and yet the source of iniquity 
remains unexhausted, the heart is unholy still. " For 
from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil 
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, co- 
vetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil 



20 SERMON I. 

eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness ; all these evil thi?igs 
come from within, and defile the man" (Mark vii. 91 — 
23.) Sin, therefore, in a moral point of view, is the 
leprosy which has infected the whole human race ; it 
runs in the blood, and spreads its contamination through- 
out every part of man, so that there is " no soundness in 
him."" Thus sunk and fallen, unholy and depraved, 
wretched and helpless, God has had compassion on him. 
He has " opened a fountain for sin and uncleanness ;'? a 
fountain of " water and blood :" It was opened on Cal- 
vary, in that great day when Jesus Christ died to take 
away the sins of the whole world. From the side of our 
wounded Redeemer, there flows a stream more effica- 
cious and pure than the celebrated Jordan. Jordan 
cleansed one leper only ; but the blood of our Lord 
Jesus Christ hath cleansed its thousands, and its mil- 
lions: Yea, it is cleansing many at this very hour, and 
yet it has the same virtue that it ever had, and is of equal 
efficacy for you. And if you know the plague of your 
own heart, and are made sensible of your moral disease, 
all that is required on your part is, " Wash and be clean ." 
There needs nothing for your healing, but a personal and 
an immediate application to the Saviour. It is not ne- 
cessary to attempt to dry up, or to mollify, some of the 
most loathsome of the wounds which sin has made, as a 
kind of preparation for the cure. Only try this Jordan, 
plunge into the fountain as you now are ; and you shall 
find, that God's method of saving sinners is just suited 
to your present condition ; in the very act of washing, 
you shall become clean. 

2. The appointed method of salvation is simple and 
easy to be understood. — What simplicity is there in the 
message of the holy man of God to Naaman ! He did 



NAAM'AN CLEANSED. 91 

not bid him do " some great thing." He did not enjoin 
upon him the observance of a long penance, a painful 
routine of religious duties, a laborious study of the 
law of Moses, no not even of that part of the law 
which related to lepers, and the ritual ceremony of their 
cleansing ; but — Away to Jordan ! — He directs him to 
Jordan at once ; and the sum of all the advice necessary 
in such an important case, was contained in four easy 
words, " Wash and be clean V Why, surely it did not 
require great learning to understand this message. A 
child, an almost idiot, might have comprehended its 
meaning, as well and as readily as Naaman the Syrian 
lord. Just so it is with the method of salvation by faith 
in the death and blood-shedding of our Lord Jesus 
Christ : " It is revealed unto babes." Even " the deep 
things of God " are all contained in the elementary prin- 
ciple of Christianity,— -justifying Juith ; for "he that 
believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life." (John iii. 36.) 

To him that on thy name believes 

Eternal life with thee is given ; , 
Into himself he all receives, 

Pardon, and holiness, and heaven. 

O guilty and ruined sinner ! " Believe thou in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. 11 

3. As this method of salvation is easy to be under- 
stood, so is it, in one respect, easy to be performed. — God 
on his part has removed every difficulty out of the way. 
For there is nothing to pay at Jordan^ stream ; there 
we maybe cleansed "without money and without price." 
Naaman^ " teei talents of silver, and six thousand talents 
of gold," were of no use to him here ; he could not carry 
his riches into the river with him ; they would then have 
been a mere useless burden, and more fit to sink him to 



«» SERMON I. 

the bottom by their weight, than to serve as an equiva- 
lent for his cure, as he had intended. According to the 
means prescribed by the prophet, " Wash and be clean,'''' a 
beggar, a Lazarus, might have been cleansed as easily and 
as soon as Naaman. — So, my brethren, the sinner who 
would be saved, must be saved in his own proper character 
as a sinner, and not in an assumed character, as a person 
who is, at least, partially righteous. Whether he owe five 
hundred pence, or only fifty, still he is a debtor, and^ in 
either case, absolutely and eternally insolvent ; therefore, 
the condition of absolvency, the act of grace, runs 
thus : — " When, conscious of thine utter ruin, thou hast 
nothing to pay, I will freely forgive thee all." Here 
then are "glad tidings of great joy" to lost, ruined, un- 
holy sinners. They may be "justified freely by the 
grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus ; through faith in his blood." (Rom. iii. 24, 25.) 
No merit is required on their part, no good work pre- 
vious to the act of cleansing, beyond those fruits meet 
for repentance, which always accompany godly sorrow 
for sin. There is no limitation as to age, or place, or 
person. Grace, free grace, hath opened the fountain for 
sinners, and for sinners only; and the sole condition 
required, in the performance of which there is surely 
nothing meritorious, is, to " wash and be clean." 

4. This method of saving man is deeply humbling to 
the soul. — See Naaman at the door of Elisha ! His bosom 
swells with pride and indignation. He turns away his 
chariot, and departs in a rage. His servants expostu- 
late. He considers, relents, and directs his way to Jor- 
dan. He comes within sight of the river ; arrives at its 
banks ; descends from his chariot, ^nd stands beside the 
stream ! What an aifecting scene ! But he is clad in rich 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 28 

vestments, and over all is thrown his costly mantle. He 
cannot enter Jordan with these encumbrances. He 
divests himself of them all ; and then he discovers what 
he would have fain concealed even from his own view, 
that his leprosy is indeed a dreadful plague; that it is 
spread over the whole man. Thus abased in spirit, and 
abhorring himself, he enters Jordan, and dips himself 
seven times, — sinks, as it were, under the purifying 
stream, that it may " wash him throughly," and so he is 
made whole. — In this picture of humbled Naaman, let 
the poor, vile, unholy sinner see in what manner he is 
to come to Jesus Christ for the cleansing of his soul. 
He must know the extent of his malady. The robes of 
his Pharisaic righteousness, which, alas ! are so far from 
being costly, that they are only "filthy rags," must be 
stripped off; and his " spreading leprosy" must appear 
in sight. He must see himself to be a loathsome wretch, 
unfit for any but the vilest society, and that " from the 
sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no sound- 
ness in him, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying 
sores." (Isa. i. 6.) When the sinner has such views of 
his own wretched condition, and is filled with self-abhor- 
rence, the time of his cleansing is just at hand. Despair 
of any other remedy will constrain him to apply to the 
Christ of God, unto whom no one ever applied without 
obtaining a cure. He will sink into that purple flood 
which issues from the cross, and lose all his guilty stains, 
Immediately he becomes clean : For 

5. The gospel exhibits a speedy and a present salva- 
tion : " Wash, and be clean." The blessing is imme- 
diately consequent on obeying the direction of God, 
So it was with Naaman : He was not cured by a slow 
process, in a gradual manner ; He did not repeat his 



24 SERMON I. 

application to Jordan, for several successive months or 
days, till he found the cure was wrought ; but the very 
day he bathed in Jordan, that self-same day was he 
made whole. He was a leper when he entered the 
stream, but he came out a cleansed man. " Such power 
belongeth unto God :" And in such a manner does he 
cleanse the soul from the guilt and pollution of sin. 
The very moment a sinner comes to Christ in God's 
own way, that very moment he finds salvation, and ob- 
tains " redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of 
sins. ,, (Ephes. i. 7.) It is true, there are some awakened 
sinners, who are a long time in finding the way to 
Jordan ; and there are others who find the way to it, 
but stand lingering on the banks, and afraid to venture 
in : But at whatever moment the sinner enters, and 
washes in the purifying stream, — whether it be in the 
hour that he is awakened, as in the case of the Philippian 
Jailor, or after a longer tarrying, — that moment he be- 
comes clean : He finds that " the power of the Lord is 
present to heal." (Luke v. 17.) " If we believingly 
confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'" 
(1 John i. 9.) — O then, let us all flee unto Christ ! Let 
us go to him without delay, without reasoning, without 
doubting. He not only invites us to himself ; he con- 
descends by his servants to expostulate with our un- 
humbled hearts, that we may be persuaded " after so 
long a time" of wretchedness and misery, to try the 
efficacy of his atonement, and the all-hallowing virtue 
of his blood. 

II. The arguments by which the gospel method of 
salvation is recommended unto us. — " And his servants 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 25 

came near, and spake unto him, and said, My Father ', 
if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing ■, wouldest 
thou not have done it f How much rather then, when he 
saith to thee, Wash, and be clean ?" 

1. This argument is founded on the supposition of 
one fact, which, perhaps, more than any other that can 
be adduced, demonstrates the awful extent of pride and 
unbelief in an unregenerate heart. The fact assumed is 
this : — The simplicity of the method of salvation, which 
God has appointed, is the grand cause of stumbling to 
many, and the very reason why they refuse that salva- 
tion when it is offered unto them. Man wants to be 
doing " some great thing ;"" — something corresponding 
with what he conceives to be the dignity of his nature, 
so that he may not be altogether indebted to the rich, 
free, and wholly undeserved grace of God, in and 
through the redemption of Christ Jesus. Hence the 
doctrine of Salvation by Faith is generally spoken 
of with great scorn and contempt, by mere men of the 
world. It was owing to the influence of that lofty 
spirit which will not " submit" to God's method of jus- 
tifying the ungodly, that the Jews rejected the Messiah, 
and remained without the possession of that salvation, 
which they seemed to seek and desire. " Israel which 
followed after the law of righteousness, hath not 
attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? 
Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by 
the works of the law. For they stumbled at that 
stumbling-stone ; as it is written, Behold, I lay in 
Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence ; and who- 
soever belie veth on him shall not be ashamed." (Rom. 
ix. 31 — 33.) It is owing to the operation of this same 
principle of pride, which is common to every man whose 

c ; 



26 



SERMON I. 



mind is carnal, that multitudes reject the salvation of 
God, and die in their sins at last. They are unwilling to 
have a cure without purchasing it ; or to obtain a right- 
eousness that is not of their own establishing. They 
are labouring to " work out their own salvation,'" not 
merely independently of God, who alone can " work in 
us to will and to do of his good pleasure," but in direct 
opposition to his working in the heart ; so that all their 
endeavours are nothing more than laborious efforts to 
be saved, in a way quite contrary to that which God 
hath appointed in his holy word. 

% See the unawakened sinner ! I do not now speak 
of that poor, wretched, careless creature, who has no 
concern about his eternal interests, who drinks in ini- 
quity as the ox doth water, and who is ready to say in 
his heart, " There is no God. ,, — But I speak of such an 
one as is moral and exact in his conduct, who is, " touch- 
ing the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." 
Without much knowledge of his moral condition, or of 
the nature of his sinful malady, what few symptoms of 
unsoundness and disease he discovers, he labours to 
cure by his own art ; and wherein his own skill fails, 
he comes to God, but not through Christ; and, by 
offering a few heartless prayers, seeks the perfecting of 
a cure, which he imagines is at least begun by his own 
endeavours. He is making a continual effort to recom- 
mend himself to God. Religious services are rather a 
drudgery than a delight ; but he toils in them, and con- 
science keeps him continually to his task. He says a 
multitude of prayers > he reads his Bible ; he fasts, and 
takes the utmost pains to prepare himself for devoutly 
communicating at the table of the Lord. He is regular 
in attendance on all appointed ordinances, whether of 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 27 

divine or human institution. He gives much alms, he 
is honest, sober, just; he is not "as other men are ," 
And what is the secret, the reigning motive, what in- 
fluences him in the performance of all these duties ? A 
general, a sincere, and perhaps, an earnest desire to be 
saved. But, mark, it is a desire to be saved in his own 
way, by doing some great thing. This sin of pride 
mingles with all, and mars all that he does. There is 
no sinner on earth who so daringly insults the eternal 
Jehovah, as the unhumbled Pharisee. He will not 
blaspheme the name of God in the presence of men; 
but, with the hardihood of Cain, he will venture to 
appear before God in secret, or in his temple, without 
the blood of sprinkling ; and will, with apparent devo- 
tion, ask of God grace, mercy, and salvation, while he feels 
not his guilt, and while he refuses Him whom God hath 
appointed to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 
" O that men were wise, that they understood this, that 
they would consider," that it is their first duty to come 
to the Saviour, and that if this duty be disregarded, 
whatever else may be attended to, " he that is unholy, 
must be unholy still !" 

S. But let us observe the awakened sinner, who is 
not yet brought thoroughly to self-despair. He has 
been taught by the Spirit of God to know his disease ; 
he sees, he feels, he deeply laments it. Sometimes he 
has such views of his vileness and depravity, that he 
almost despairs of obtaining a cure at all. He seeks 
for healing and salvation. He even applies to the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and pleads, in the presence of God, the 
merits of his Son, with much self-abasement of spirit, 
and with " strong crying and tears." In theory he 
renounces self, and all self-depen dance ; but in point of 

c 2 



%ti SERMON I. 

fact, the refined Pharisaism of his heart remains. This 
leaven of the carnal mind is still working in his soul ; 
else, what could keep him from Christ, and salvation ? 
He is still seeking to do some great thing; deeper 
repentance, more tenderness of heart, greater earnest- 
ness of soul in prayer, instead of obeying the command, 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." In reality, he finds it the hardest thing in the 
world to believe on the Son of God : And undoubtedly 
it is so, until the Spirit of faith is given. If God had 
enjoined him to continue on his knees for many hours, 
or to do penance for months, or to inflict on his body 
a number of painful stripes, or to engage in any labo- 
rious undertaking, as the condition of his salvation, he 
could have done it with cheerfulness : But O ! to 
come to Christ, to believe in Christ with the heart unto 
righteousness, — how can he possibly do this r His 
objection to this divine method of salvation seems to 
spring from humility, inasmuch as he pleads, with 
penitential sorrow, his titter unworthiness ; but, in 
reality, it proceeds from pride, since he is waiting to 
get some kind of worthiness preparatory to his coming 
to that Saviour, who bids the unworthy, and none but 
the unworthy, to come to him. Hence it is, that many 
an awakened sinner is kept from Christ ; and travails 
long in the pangs of the new birth, as though there 
were not strength to bring forth. Hence many a leper 
continues uncleansed, though the remedy is provided. 
Happier they, who', like Naaman, the first time they are 
directed to Jordan, do on that very day venture in, 
wash, and are made clean. 

4. Let me then apply the argument contained in the 
text to every one who is conscious of his sin and guilt, 



NAAMAN CLEANSED. 29 

who feels his misery and danger. Are you come hither 
to obtain directions how to be made whole ? I set before 
you no vast undertaking, no difficulties to discourage a 
poor guilty child of Adam. I wish you to consider two 
things, First, That none but Christ can cleanse you; 
and, Secondly, That Christ can cleanse you now. 
Here you have a great advantage over Naaman, whose 
history describes your condition. When he had received 
the message of the prophet, he had to travel a consider- 
able distance in search of Jordan : But the fountain that 
is to cleanse you, is just at hand ; I can point you unto 
it in a moment. " Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh 
away the sin of the world t" 

See him set forth before your eyes, 
That precious bleeding sacrifice ! 

See the vital stream flowing from the side of your 
Redeemer ! Consider its efficacy. What mighty virtue 
it hath ! It cleansed a Manasseh ! It cleansed a Peter, 
a Saul of Tarsus : It can, it will cleanse you : " O ye of 
little faith, wherefore do ye doubt ?" Nothing can hin- 
der if you are but willing now, just now, (while offering 
this prayer, " Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, 
and cleanse me from my sin,") to venture into the crim- 
son stream : There you cannot perish ; there you shall, 
you must be healed. Away then with self. Away with 
righteous self. Come, O thou poor distressed leper ; all 
vile, all diseased, all polluted, all sinful, as thou art ! 
And come now ! Step into Jordan at this very moment, 
and thou shalt be made whole ; and, with all those who 
are cleansed, thou shalt return and give praise unto 
God. 

5. Brethren, many of you are made whole ; " sin no 
c 3 



31) SERMON I. 

more, lest a worse thing come unto you." " Be not high- 
minded, but fear." Keep to the plain, simple, gospel way 
of salvation. Naaman, indeed, after his cleansing, might 
return to Syria ; nor was it needful, that he should ever 
see the Jordan any more. It is not so with you. Where 
you have been cleansed you must remain ; there you 
must live, and there you must die. O never depart 
from the cross ; never leave the Redeemer's side ; but 
continue to live by faith in him who hath "redeemed you 
from all your iniquities," until he who is " able to keep 
you from falling, shall present you faultless before the 
presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Then with 
all the redeemed shall you sing, — " Unto him that hath 
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 
and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his 
Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and 
ever. Amen !" 



SERMON II. 
MOSES" LAST WORDS. 



There is none tike unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the 
heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The Eternal 
God is thy 7'efuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms j 
And he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee ; and shall say, 
Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone : The fountain 
of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine ; also his heavens shall 
drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel : Who is like unto thee, O 
people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword 
of thy excellency ! And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee ; 
and thou shalt tread upon their high places. — Deuteronomy 
xxxiii. 26—29. 

These are the last words of Moses, who was one of 
the most extraordinary instruments ever raised up and 
employed, by God, to preserve and increase the know- 
ledge of true religion amongst men. His whole life had 
been marked by great events ; and especially that period 
of it in which he had been the leader of Israel. He was 
then to die. A more solemn and affecting departure 
can hardly be conceived. At the advanced age of a 
hundred and twenty years, neither enfeebled in body 
nor impaired in the vigour of his mind, he assembled 
the children of Israel together, to give unto them his 
last counsels, and his last blessing. First, He pro- 
nounced a prophetic benediction on each separate tribe : 
And, Then, In the lofty, sublime, and animating lan= 



32 SERMON II. 

guage of the text, he described their collective happiness 
as a nation, arising from their relation to Jehovah, as his 
" saved people." The most abundant temporal felicity is 
promised to the Israelites,— the entire expulsion of their 
enemies, the Canaanites, — the most perfect security in the 
land of their possession, — the greatest abundance of the 
richest blessings of providence, — and the continual pro- 
tection of the Lord, by whose power they should tread 
all their foes under their feet, and always gain the vic- 
tory. If Israel had proved obedient to the law of God, 
all these promises would have been fulfilled in their ex- 
perience, and the Jewish nation would have flourished 
in Canaan to this very day ; while all the nations of the 
earth would have been constrained with admiration to 
exclaim, " Happy art thou, O Israel : Who is like unto 
thee, O people saved by the Lord !" 

It is evident, however, on a bare reading of these 
words, that they are by no means to be confined to those 
temporal blessings which obedience to the divine law 
would have secured to the Jewish nation. They have 
a far higher and deeper meaning : They are prophetic 
of those more exalted and spiritual blessings which it is 
our privilege to possess, in all their fulness, under the 
Christian dispensation. Moses herein "prophesied of 
the grace that should come unto us ;" and all who have 
received and duly improved that grace, are enabled to 
adopt the language of one who lived at the commence- 
ment of the Christian era: "Blessed be the Lord God 
of Israel ; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 
and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the 
house of his servant David ; as he spake by the mouth 
of his holy prophets, which have been since the world 
began : That we should be saved from our enemies, and 



MOSES" LAST WORDS. 33 

from the hand of all that hate us ; to perform the mercy 
promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy co- 
venant; the oath which he sware to our father Abra- 
ham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being 
delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve 
him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before 
him all the days of our life^ (Luke i. 68 — 75.) 

" To you," therefore, " brethren," who hear that " God 
hath according to his promise, raised unto Israel, a 
Saviour, Jesus ; — to you is the word of this salvation 
sent." (Acts xiii. 23, 26.) So that we may regard the 
text as describing : — 

First, The exalted character ; and, 

Secondly, The abounding happiness of all Christian 
believers. " Happy art thou, O [Christian] Israel : Who 
is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord !" 

I. The exalted character of Christian believers. 

1. They are called by the most distinguished and 
honourable names, — " Israel, Jeshurun." 

Israel was the name given to Jacob, by the angel of 
the covenant, the messenger of peace, with whom that 
patriarch wrestled and prevailed, when, returning to 
Canaan, he was afraid to meet his brother Esau. You 
may read the whole of that instructive history in Genesis 
xxxii, 24 — 32. " Thy name," said the angel, " shall no 
more be called Jacob, but Israel : For as a prince hast 
thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed.'" 
Here an allusion is made to the meaning of the name ; 
but the sentence appears to be elliptical. The sense of 
the passage, as expressed a little more at large, seems to be 
this : — "Asa prince thou hast power with God, and hast 
prevailed with him ; therefore thou shalt also have power 



34? SERMON IT. 

with men, and shalt prevail with them. 11 Success with 
God in prayer, we may ever regard as a sure pledge of 
a right and successful issue of every difficult matter that 
may occur in our intercourse with men. The appella- 
tion "Israel, 11 therefore, signifies power as a prince 
with God, and is expressive of dignity, intercourse, 
and success. 

(1.) Who can describe the Dignity of the Israel of 
God ! — They are of the noblest origin ; " born from 
above ; born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God. 11 — They are of the 
most elevated rank, called " the sons of God ;" and the 
Most High acknowledges them in that character, for 
" he is not ashamed to be called their God ; 11 that is, he 
considers himself honoured by the believing, filial, cry 
of Father. They are not only sons, but " kings and 
priests ; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy 
nation, a peculiar people, shewing forth his praises who 
hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous 
light. 11 They are made w partakers of the divine nature, 1 ' 
and are " perfect as their Father who is in heaven is per- 
fect. 11 — They have the friendship and the services of the 
highest orders of beings. The angel Jehovah with his 
host encampeth round about them : And all his host are 
their ministering spirits. — They have the highest expecta- 
tions ; for, being sons, they are " heirs of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ. 11 " They know that when he doth 
appear, they shall be like him, for they shall see him as 
he is. 11 — See the honour and dignity unto which the lowly 
in heart attain ! And in now remarkable a mariner 
believers find the words of the Lord Jesus verified, 
" He that humbleth himself shall be exalted V 

(2.) The Israel of God also enjoy Communion with 



MOSEs' LAST WORDS. 35 

him. — " Truly their fellowship is with the Father, and 
with his Son Jesus Christ." The name of every place 
where they bow down to pray, is Peniel. Whether they 
approach unto God "in the temple," or "in an upper 
room," or " by the sea-side," or " in a wilderness," or 
" upon a mountain," they see God face to face ; and with un- 
restrained freedom and confidence "pour out their hearts 
before him." The Saviour, on whose name they call, is 
nigh at hand ; and they " stir up themselves in prayer 
to take hold of him :" (Isaiah lxiv. 7 :) And as often as 
they declare, with holy vehemence, mingled with deepest 
reverence, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless me," 
they are constrained, on rising from his presence, with 
gratitude to acknowledge, " He hath blessed me there." 

(3.) They have Success in prayer. — The true Israel 
prevail with God for every blessing they need. " What- 
soever they ask, they receive of him, because they keep 
his commandments, and do those things that are pleas- 
ing in his sight." (1 John iii. 22.) At the feet of the 
Redeemer they have found the forgiveness of their sins. 
If they have erred, he has healed their backslidings. In 
the day of temptation they have cried unto him, and he 
hath bruised Satan under their feet. They have asked 
for purity of heart, and God has cleansed them from all 
unrighteousness. One thing more have they desired of 
the Lord, namely, grace to be faithful unto death, and 
he hath said, " My grace is sufficient for thee ; I will 
never leave thee, nor forsake thee." O how happy, and 
how dignified are they, who have " subscribed with their 
hand unto the Lord, and who are surnamed by the name 
of Israel." (Isaiah xliv. 5.) 

But they are also called "Jeshurun." This name 
signifies undeviating uprightness. Undeviating upright- 



36 



SERMON tl. 



ness marked Jacob's conduct after he was called Israel 
Before, he was Jacob the supplanter, inclined to dissimu- 
lation and deceit ; but afterwards he became an " Israelite 
indeed, in whom was no guile." He abhorred it from 
his very soul in others ; however specious the occasion 
might have been that led to the practice of it. With 
what indignation, with what vehemence, with what care, 
did he in his last hours clear himself from having had 
any share in the deceitful and bloody conduct of his sons, 
Simeon and Levi, towards Hamor and Shechem, and 
their people ! " O my soul, thou earnest not into their 
secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, thou wast 
not united." (Genesis xlix. 6.) In this respect, all the 
Israel of God are like that venerable patriarch : As the 
true Jeshurun, they ' : abhor deceit f and every one is 
" daily walking in his uprightness." — They are upright 
in their principles. They never confound right and 
wrong, calling good evil, or evil good ; because all their 
principles are drawn from the u perfect law" of God. — 
They are upright in their professions ; " speaking the 
truth from the heart," both to God and man. — They 
are upright in practice. They have " clean hands" as 
well as " a pure heart." They are careful " to defraud 
no man," to wrong no man, but to " render to all their 
due ;" and that not of necessity, (to preserve their credit 
in the world,) but of choice, because it is one of the com- 
mandments of God ; and his commandments are not 
grievous unto them. In fine, " whatsoever things are 
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things 
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, in which 
there is any virtue, or any praise," (Phil. iv. 8,) those 
things they observe and do, Thus we see that their 



MOSEs" LAST WORDS. 87 

character corresponds with the distinguished names by 
which they are called, — " Israel, Jeshurun " 

2. Christian believers are described as being raised 
from the ruins of the fall ; they are a saved people. 
" Who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord.'" 
They are saved from sin, through faith in our Lord 
Jesus Christ : Saved from guilt and condemnation, by 
faith in his blood ; saved from the dominion of sin, by 
faith in his power ; saved from the in-being of sin, and 
from all its pollution, by faith in his intercession. For 
they believe that Christ is u able to save to the uttermost 
all those that come unto God by him, seeing he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them." (Heb. vii. 25.) 
" For," says St. Paul, "if, when we were enemies, we were 
reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; much more, 
being reconciled, we shall be saved hy his life? (Rev. 
v. 10.) 

They are thus saved "by the Lord" " Salvation is of 
the Lord" alone ; it is the consequence of redemption. 
The redeeming plan originated in the mind of God ; it 
was wrought out by his own infinite wisdom, and power, 
and goodness ; and its blessings are brought home to 
the heart by his grace. From first to last they are 
" saved by grace through faith." And the more complete 
the salvation is, that is thus sought and received, the 
more God is glorified. So that the spiritual Israel being 
" saved by the Lord," it is no wonder, or, at Feast, no 
impossible thing, that they should be saved from all sin : 
For who shall limit the Holy One of Israel, or venture 
to affirm, that to grant such a salvation to man on earth, 
is a thing " too hard for Jehovah !" 

But they are "a saved people ;" that is, a collective 
and united body. Of old, it is true, there were different 



88 SEllMON II. 

tribes.- Moses thus enumerates them in this chapter;— 
the tribe of Reuben, and the tribe of Judah, including 
the tribe of Simeon, and the tribe of Benjamin, and the 
tribes of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh ; and the tribe 
of Zebulun, and the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Dan, 
and the tribe of Naphthali, and the tribe of Asher : But 
these were not adverse tribes, for all their nominal dis- 
tinctions were lost, in the one common and exalted name 
of Israel,— a people, — -one people, — and all "saved by 
the Lord." So, my brethren, it is in the church of 
Jesus Christ. We have our distinct tribes, to each of 
which a disdainful world has affixed some honourable 
name, Pietist, or Puritan, or Saint ; but we have only 
one altar, and one sacrifice, and one God and Father of 
us all, and only one baptism, and but " one name 1 ' which 
we acknowledge to be "above every name;' 1 which name 
unites us all in the common appellation of Christian ; 
and but one subject of glorying, which is, — that we are 
all "a people saved by the Lord." 

If then we are all " one in Christ Jesus, 1 ' it must surely 
be the bounden duty of every individual who is saved, 
or who is desirous of obtaining salvation, not to stand 
alone, unconnected with the people of the Lord ; but to 
unite himself with them in Christian fellowship, that he 
may enjoy their blessings, and share in the advantages 
of all their religious privileges. Let him unite with 
that tribe whose particular sentiments he judges to be 
most scriptural on minor points, and whose religious 
institutions he finds best calculated to promote his spi- 
ritual prosperity. But let him beware of becoming a 
modern Latitudinarian in practice, by wandering every 
where, and settling no where ; for such a practice, how- 
ever plausible it may seem, by enabling a man to say, 



MOSES LAST WORDS. 



" I am of no party," only marks indecision of character, 
and is equally contrary to reason and to the word of 
God. Christianity contains within itself the strongest 
principle of union ; and from the establishment of the 
first Christian church in Judea, down to the present 
day, " the multitude of them that have believed have 
been of one heart and of one soul." (Acts iv. 32.) The 
character of God's Israel is, that they are " a saved 
people ;" saved from sin, but not from conflicts. 

(3.) They are described as enduring a warfare : — 
They have enemies. 

Those enemies are numerous and invisible, subtle and 
powerful. " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, 
but against principalities, against powers, against the 
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
wickedness in high places."" (Ephes. vi. 12.) Satan and 
all his legions are the enemies of the Israel of God. 
They seek to accomplish the destruction of believers 
chiefly by art and stratagem. They seek to " beguile by 
their subtlety ." They have numerous " devices ;" and 
with great cunning spread " a snare for our feet." Hence 
St. Paul bids us to stand on our guard " against the 
wiles of the devil ;" and in the text these enemies are 
called " liars,"" or subtle deceivers : " Thine enemies shall 
be found liars unto thee." 

How often do they bring lying accusations against 
God's elect, by tempting them to doubt of the divine 
goodness, and of the reality of that change which has 
been wrought in their heart by the Spirit of God! 
Sometimes they bring lying accusations even against 
God himself, suggesting to the mind of some of the 
true Israel, that they cannot possibly fall to their final 
destruction, notwithstanding God, who cannot be untrue 9 



40 SERMON II. 

hath declared, — " If the just, who lives by faith, draw 
back unto perdition," instead of believing unto final 
salvation, " my soul shall have no pleasure in him." 
(Heb. x. 38, 39.) 

To the mind of others they whisper an opposite false- 
hood, insinuating that they certainly will and must fall, 
and thus for a season harassing them with the most 
distressing fears, — though God hath said, " that he will 
not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able 
to bear," and " that thev shall never perish, neither shall 
any man pluck them out of his hand, while they con- 
tinue to hear his voice, and to follow him." In fact, 
Satan has always very plausible reasons for his tempta- 
tions ; on which account, we are not to listen to him for 
a moment, but " to resist him steadfast in the faith."" 

But the most common insinuation of these enemies 
is, that sin cannot be wholly destroyed in this life. Here 
Satan pleads for his own. Here he does not appear 
as an angel of light, but openly calls upon us to " fall 
down and worship himself;" and to join with him in 
acknowledging that the Son of God is not able yet " to 
destroy the works of the devil," though he was mani- 
fested for that very purpose. These adversaries secretly 
exult at the general credence given to their vile insinua- 
tions on this subject. They magnify their own power ; 
they exhibit the strength of their "high places," and 
insultingly say, " O Israel ! thou shalt not tread upon 
them," and thus as directly give the lie to God's word 
of promise, as 1 hey did unto God's word of threatening, 
when they said unto the first transgressor, " Thou shalt 
not surely die." There are some, however, who have so 
far " received an unction from the Holy One, teaching 
them all things^" as to believe with all their heart that 



MOSES** LAST WORDS. 41 

* c the arm of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot 
save." While conscious of their own feebleness, they 
know that they shall become " mighty through God :" 
Not only to the making here and there a breach, but " to 
the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down imagi- 
nations, and every high thing that exalteth itself 
against the knowledge of God ;*" and that, instead of 
being " brought into bondage to the law of sin," they 
shall be able, having overthrown sin's strong holds, to 
drag forth the last remaining corruptions, exhibit them 
as so many captives completely conquered by the all- 
victorious grace of the all-sufficient God, and, in this 
triumphant manner, " bring into captivity every thought 
to the obedience of Christ.*' 1 (2 Cor. x. 4, 5.)— But, 
however different may be the views of God's Israel as to 
the strength of their foes, and the extent of the con- 
quests they may gain over them ; yet on this point they 
^re all agreed,— to make no peace, to admit of no truce 
with them, but to war a good warfare, and to fight the 
good fight of faith, that they may at last lay hold on 
eternal life. And this eternal life shall be finally 
obtained by all who continue to war against their spiri- 
tual foes, although the degrees of salvation enjoyed on 
earth may greatly differ, for " according to their faith 
it shall be done unto them."" In the text their full pri- 
vileges are placed before us ; for in it we have, not only 
the exalted character of believers exhibited, but we have 
described 

II. Their abounding happiness. 

As all their salvation comes from God, so all their 
happiness is in him. 

1. The first source of their happiness arises from the 
D 



42 SERMON II. 

exalted views they have of Jehovah their God. " There 
is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon 
the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the 
sky." (Verse 26.) 

The matchless perfections of Jehovah have been 
a subject of triumphant rejoicing to the people of God 
in every age of the world. When Moses had seen the 
arm of the Lord made bare, in the destruction of 
Pharaoh and his hosts, and the great deliverance which 
had been wrought for Israel, he exultingly sung, 
u Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods ? Who 
is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, 
doing wonders ?" (Exod. xv. 11.) And at the close of 
life, after forty years'* more experience of the goodness 
of God towards his people, he is confirmed in the 
same joyous truth, and leaves it with Israel, as his dying 
testimony, that there " is none like unto the God of 
Jeshurun. 1 ' 

(1.) There is none like him in Wisdom. He is " God 
only wise." He is " light, and in him is no darkness at 
all." He is every where present, knows all creatures, 
searches every heart, perceives every motive and secret 
design, and can endlessly diversify the operations of his 
providence, so as to make u all things work together for 
good to them that love him." Hence we may rest with 
confidence in his sure word of promise, which declares, 
" No weapon that is formed against thee, shall prosper ; 
and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judg- 
ment, thou shalt condemn." (Isaiah liv. 17.) 

(2.) There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun 
in Power. He created the world ; and he upholds and 
governs all things by the word of his power. 

(3.) None is like unto him in Goodness. He is 



MOSES 1 LAST WORDS. 43 

u the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- 
suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keep- 
ing mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and trans- 
gression, and sin." (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.) 

(4.) There is none like him in Faithfulness and 
Truth. He keepeth covenant, he is mindful of his 
word ; and always performs his promises. Memorable 
were the words of Joshua to the tribes of Israel, just 
before his death : " Behold ! I this day am going the 
way of all the earth : And ye know in all your hearts and 
in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the 
good things which the Lord your God spake concerning 
you ; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing 
hath failed thereof." (Josh, xxiii. 14.) 

(5.) But, above all, there is none like unto him in 
Compassion, and in readiness to help, and to deliver 
Israel in every time of trouble. " There is none like 
the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in 
thy help, and in his excellency on the sky." This 
glorious promise is no less expressive of the Mercy than 
of the Majesty of Jehovah. Both are combined; it 
expresses the majesty of mercy. " Thine, O Lord, is 
the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the 
victory, and the majesty : For all that is in the heaven 
and in the earth, is thine : Thine is the kingdom, 
O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all." 
(1 Chron. xxix. 11.) But though the Lord God be 
thus highly exalted above all, it is that he may 
observe all ; and especially that his " eye may be upon 
them that fear him, and whose hope is in his mercy." 
On him they every moment depend. Yet there are 
some seasons of infirmity, of affliction, of sorrow, and 
of temptation, in which they peculiarly need his help.-— 

d 2 



44 SERMON II. 

On such occasions he comes, as it were, visibly to their 
relief. " They lift up] their eyes unto the hills from 
whence theirl help j come th :" And lo ! not a commis- 
sioned angel, nor a commissioned host appears ; but the 
God of Jeshurun himself is seen, " bowing the heavens, 
and coming down," that by his own manifested presence 
he may chase away all sorrow, and inspire the soul with 
joy.— -He comes swiftly. u Make no long tarrying, O 
my God !," is the prayer of Israel : And it is answered, 
" He rideth to thy help." Prayer is turned to praise, 
and Israel exceedingly rejoices : " Sing unto God, sing 
praises to his name : Extol him that rideth upon the 
heavens by his name J ah, and rejoice before him." 
(Psalm xlviii. 4.) — He comes with Majesty and Power : 
s * He rideth upon the heaven in thy&help," making the 
clouds his chariot ; " and in his excellency on the sky." 
When he appears to IsraeFs help, the mightiest diffi- 
culties are removed in a moment ; " the mountains flow 
down at his presence*;" or renewed strength is given, so 
that with such a helper no load seems too heavy for 
Israel to sustain. Thus the happiness of believers is in- 
creased by every new trial, and increased in proportion to 
its severity and continuance ; because it brings forth 
new proofs of the goodness and unchangeable faithful- 
ness of the Lord their God. 

2. A second source of Israel's happiness arises from 
the views they have of God's more than paternal care. 
« The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are 
the everlasting arms." (Verse Tl.) 

Moses had finely expressed the same thought on a 
former occasion ; and, from it, he had derived encou- 
ragement and consolation in one of his deepest afflictions : 
« 6 Lord ! thou hast been our dwelling-place in all gene- 



MOSES' LAST WORDS. 45 

iations, v ' (Psalm xc. 1.) Not the sure abode of this 
fleeting race alone, " whose days are passing away in thy 
wrath, and whose years are spent as a tale that is told ;" 
but thou wast the dwelling-place of our forefathers 
throughout their successive generations, as thou wilt be 
of our children in every succeeding age, when our short- 
ened period of three-score years and ten is gone. " The 
eternal God !" Everlasting consolation flows from that 
everlasting name. Hence we derive encouragement 
from all the past manifestations of the divine goodness ? 
towards those who have loved and served him. Do we 
inquire. Who was the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of 
Jacob, of the Prophets, of the Apostles, of the Martyrs, 
and who, in such a wonderful manner, brought them 
all out of great tribulation, and so graciously upheld 
them, till by " faith and patience, they were brought to 
inherit the promises ? v Do we ask, " What is his 
name ?" He is called the eternal God. He is 
therefore, the same God to us that he has been to all his 
people, from the time of righteous Abel unto this very 
hour. " This God is our God for ever and ever ; and 
he will be our guide, even unto death."" (Psalm xlviii, 
14.) On this account, we are sure, none of our 
future hopes will be disappointed ; for they are founded 
on the promises of the eternal God ; and this God is 
known for a refuge unto all his saints. 

He is a constant refuge : His love and power know 
neither measure nor end, towards those who confide in 
him and who are obedient to his word. — He is a sure 
refuge : Those who find shelter in him, and who abide 
in him, can never perish. Only let them dwell in God ; 
and then they shall be as safe as if they were already in 
heaven, and as secure as if their warfare had already 

d3 



46 SERMON II. 

ended in victory. Every believer abiding in God may 
confidently say, "I am persuaded that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." (Rom. viii. 38, 39.) 

God is a near refuge ; " a very present help in 
trouble.' 1 God is never so nigh to his saints as in the 
time of trouble. Then, with all the compassion of a 
father, he spreads around and underneath them the 
" everlasting arms." What sympathy, what pity, what 
gentleness, what bowels of compassion may we discover 
in his dealings with them ! " In all their afflictions he 
is afflicted." " He strengthens them upon the bed of 
languishing, and makes all their bed in their sickness." 
His presence is with them, and that continually. Though 
unseen by mortal eye, He is all-seeing. With him are 
" the issues of life ;" and if his children die, with him 
are " the keys of Hades and Death :" — Of Hades first ; 
for he will admit their souls into Paradise, before he 
permits their body to be consigned to the tomb. He 
knows perfectly every degree of pain that is endured, 
or of weakness that is felt, and every conflict that may 
agitate the soul ; and he hears every uttered and every 
unutterable groan. He is nigh to sustain them. In his 
arms they rest. He gives them such consolations as they 
are able to bear; shews them light arising in the 
darkness of temptation, which darkness often mingles 
with and increases the gloom of affliction ; and causes 
them to hear his well-known voice, " It is I, be not 
afraid." " I will deliver thee in six troubles ; yea, in 
seven there shall no evil touch thee." (Job v. 19*) 



MOSES' LAST W011DS. 47 

The everlasting arms of a gracious God shall not only 
thus support all his afflicted children ; but they shall 
also strengthen them that are feeble : As it is written, 
" The Lord upholdeth all them that are ready to fall, 
and raiseth up all those that are bowed down." Thus 
the Israel of God are preserved and saved : And, 
enjoying happiness in the constant care and protection 
of God, under all circumstances they are enabled to 
testify, " He that dwelleth in the secret place of the 
Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the 
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, 
and my fortress ; my God, in whom I will trust." 
(Psalm xci. 1, 2.) 

3. A third source of their happiness arises from anti- 
cipated deliverance from all their sins. 

In God they have not only protection and security ; 
but by his power they shall obtain complete deliverance 
and victory. " Out of weakness they shall be made 
strong, they shall wax valiant in fight, and turn to 
flight the armies of the aliens." God, by the power of 
those " everlasting arms" which sustain his people, shall 
thrust out the enemy from before them, and shall say, 
Destroy them." (Verse 27.) Who is the enemy so 
emphatically pointed at in this gracious promise ? Is it 
not " the carnal mind," which, as it is " enmity against 
God," is also the grand enemy of every believer ? 
Ah ! this is the foe that lurks within " Man-soul," un- 
willing to depart. But the power of the enemy is 
already subdued by the grace of God. No sooner does 
the penitent " believe on Christ with the heart unto 
righteousness," and obtain " the remission of sins that 
are past through the forbearance of God," than he 
experiences an inward change, " being created anew 



48 - SERMON II. 

after the image of God, in righteousness, and true 
holiness." " Sin then no longer reigns in his mortal 
body, that he should obey it in the lusts thereof; it 
has not the dominion over him, for he is not under the 
law but under grace. He is made free from sin, and 
having become a servant of God, he bears fruit unto 
holiness, that, in the end he may receive everlasting 
life." (Rom. vi. 1% 14, %%). But though sin has no, 
dominion over a believer, nor can it have while he 
¥, stands fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
him free ;" it nevertheless exists within him as , an 
opposing principle to the grace received, until he is 
" sanctified wholly, and cleansed from all unrighteous- 
ness." It exists within him as an enemy. God can 
change the character of the sinner, but nothing can 
change the nature of sin. Therefore, we must not be 
at ease in Zion, or suffer sin to dwell quietly in the soul ; 
for if we are content that it should remain, our carnal 
security will be its vigour, and we shall be in the most 
imminent danger of being again brought into bondage 
by its revived power. By prayer and fasting, by watch- 
fulness, by self-denial, by activity in doing good, by 
diligence in all the means of grace, and, above all, by the 
constant exercise of faith, we must seek unto that God 
" who performed! all things for us," to grant unto us his 
" great salvation," that God may dwell in our hearts 
alone. 

So great a deliverance cannot be obtained without a 
struggle. The enemy will linger, and retreat, and fly 
to the strong holds of carnal reasonings, and pride, and 
unbelief; but he cannot long remain, if there be active 
faith in the mighty power of God. " He shall thrust 
out the enemy;" w, eocpely drive him out ; and the 



MOSES' LAST WORDS. 49 

previous conflicts shall only serve to make the triumphs 
of Israel more distinguished and complete. The be- 
liever, when wholly sanctified, shall be conscious of his 
deliverance. He shall, as it were, see the enemy depart ; 
for the glorious promise is, " God shall thrust out the 
enemy from before thee" Nor does the privilege of 
believers end here ; for the expelled foe is to be 
" destroyed," exterminated as well as banished from the 
heart ; destroyed, to return no more for ever. Yes, he 
whose name is called, "Wonderful, Counsellor, the 
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince oF 
Peace," can, not only " redeem Israel from all his iniqui- 
ties," and, by virtue of his intercession, " save him 
unto the uttermost" now; but, he is also " able to keep 
him from falling, until he presents him faultless 
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy ." 
The apostle Paul believed, that God was willing to 
make believers stand in this state of grace also, when 
he offered up the following inspired request to Him 
" who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we 
ask or think :" " And the very God of peace sanctify 
you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit, and 
soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming 
of' our Lord Jesus Christ. " (1 Thess. v. 23.) Many 
of the members of the Thessalonian Church, if not 
most of them, were at that time, " unblameable in 
holiness ;" and he besought them " to increase and 
abound in love," to the end " that their hearts might 
be stablished unblameable in that holiness before God,, 
even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ with all his saints." (1 Thess. iii. 12, 13.) 

This state of salvation is indeed great for man to 
attain unto on earth, " To receive and ever hold fast; 






50 SERMON II. 

such a blessed hope of everlasting life," as arises from 
a consciousness of being " made meet to be partakers of 
the inheritance of the saints in light," seems almost an 
impossibility. But it only appears so to us when we 
are "for getters of 'God /" The immediate bearing of the 
questionable point is, not, Can man be thus saved ? but, 
Can God thus save him ? The first fixes the mind on 
the creature who is to receive it, almost to the exclusion 
of every other thought ; the latter leads the soul directly 
to his feet who hath said, " All power is given unto me, 
in heaven and in earth. 1 ' If all power be given unto 
him whom we worship as God, and Lord ; as the Al- 
mighty, cannot " He thrust out the enemy ?" Cannot 
He expel the foe ? Yea, he can do it, and he will do it 
like a God. " He will speak and it shall be done :" 
" He will say to the enemy, Be thou destroyed," and sin 
shall be no more. — Those of the Israel of God, who are 
not yet thus fully saved, are waiting to hear that word ; 
they rejoice in hope of finding its speedy accomplish- 
ment, and are happy in anticipating this mighty deliver- 
ance to be wrought by " the power of the Eternal God." 
Then " shall their peace flow like a river, and their 
righteousness abound as the waves of the sea." This 
leads to 

4. A fourth source of Israel's happiness in God, — the 
security and plenty that shall be enjoyed when saved 
from all their sins. " Israel then shall dwell in safety 
alone : The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of 
corn and wine ; also his heavens shall drop down dew." 
(Verse 28.) They shall enjoy Security, — Plenty - , 
— Fruitfulness. 

(1.) " Israel then shall dwell in Safety alone." He 
then shall have a security, which he has not now. He 



MOSES' LAST WORDS. 51 

shall be safe because alone; because no Canaanite re- 
mains in the land. Were not the enemy expelled, Israel 
would be so far from dwelling in safety, that he would 
be every hour exposed to danger from a foe so treach- 
erous, and so near. The grand cause, my brethren, 
why there are so many backsliders, either in heart or 
life, in the church of Christ, is, multitudes rest satisfied 
when they have received the blessing of pardon, without 
going on to " perfect holiness in the fear of God." They 
sit down contented with that unto which they have al- 
ready attained ; and dwell in imaginary safety, while 
sin remains within them: But they are far, very far, 
from that scriptural security and quiet which is here 
spoken of. How differently do those believers act, who, 
like Joshua and Caleb, " follow the Lord fully !" They 
do indeed enter into rest. They can testify, " all the 
promises of God in Christ are yea, and in him amen, 
unto the glory of God by them." (2 Cor. i. 20.)— They 
dwell safe from danger. No sinful desire, no unholy 
passion, no unchristian temper, no evil word, no unkind 
deed, can " violate their rest, or stain their purity of joy." 
Their outward enemies, the world and the devil, may 
indeed assault them more powerfully than ever ; and 
they may feel weariness, and fatigue, and heaviness in 
the conflict; but they shall win the conquest without 
receiving the slightest wound, or bearing the smallest 
scar. " They are more than conquerors through him 
that loved them." — They are safe from fear. " There is 
no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear, be- 
cause fear hath torment." They have a holy, godly 
jealousy of themselves ; but it is unmixed with any sin- 
ful distrust, or painful anxiety ; because they are " con- 
fident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a 



B9, SERMON II. 

good work in them, will perform it until the day of 
Jesus Christ." (Phil. i. 6.) — They are safe from misery. 
They have no " aching void ;" for Jesus dwells within 
them, and they are become " the habitation of God 
through the Spirit." Thus Israel dwells in safety alone : 
And, without conceiving that the presence of the Ca- 
naanites is necessary to make them watchful, or advan- 
tageous by producing humility and a sense of dependence 
upon God, they deprecate the return of these their ene- 
mies as the greatest of calamities, and earnestly and 
sincerely pray. 

None but Christ to us be given, 
None but Christ in earth or heaven ! 

(2.) Israel now enjoys Plenty. " The fountain of 
Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine." These 
words originally pointed out the temporal abundance 
which the Jewish nation should enjoy by reason of the 
fruitfulness of the land. We have a parallel passage in 
Deut. viii. 7 — 9 : " The Lord thy God bringeth thee 
into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land 
of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and 
pomegranates ; a land of oil-olive and honey ; a land 
wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou 
shalt not lack any thing in it." They should not dwell 
in "a dry and thirsty land, where no water was," as they 
did in the dreary wilderness, where the finding of a plen- 
teous spring was esteemed so great a mercy as to be 
worthy of being celebrated with the most solemn thanks- 
givings and rejoicings; (Numb. xxi. 17;) but through- 
out the whole length and breadth of the land of Canaan, 
there should be fountains naturally springing up, yield- 



/OSES LAST WORDS. 56 

ing them plenty of the purest streams, and making the 
whole country so fertile and productive of the very 
choicest blessings of Providence, that it might be justly 
called " a land of corn and wine." " The fountainbf 
Jacob 1 ' signifies the fountain of the descendants of Jacob, 
in the same manner as they are called " Israel" in the 
preceding sentence, and "Jeshurun" in a former verse. — 
Of the spiritual blessings exhibited in this passage, we 
have a fine illustration in our Lord's conversation with 
the woman of Samaria ; and perhaps he had these very 
words in view, when he said, " Whosoever drinketh of 
the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; but 
the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well 
of water springing up into everlasting life." (John iv. 
14.) " This he" undoubtedly "spake of the Spirit, which 
they that believe on him should receive" in all that 
fulness promised in the latter days. They should not 
merely drink of the fountain, but, as it were, possess the 
whole ; it should be within them springing up to life 
eternal. Thus it is with believers when purified by 
grace, and "filled with all the fulness of God." They 
are then enabled to sing, 

The painful thirst, the fond desire, 
Thy joyous presence shall remove ; 
But my full soul shall still require 
A whole eternity of love. 

They are also fed as with "corn and wine ;" the richest 
blessings of the everlasting gospel are their constant por- 
tion. They are sustained by the manna of divine love, 
which is never permitted to fail, but comes down every 
morning new, so that they are " satisfied with favour, 
and full with the blessing of the Lord." (Deut. xxxiii. 
23.) 



54 SERMON II. 

(3.) The plenteous grace within is nourished conti- 
nually from above. There is no lack of divine influ- 
ences. Their " heavens do also drop down dew." The 
store of t heir heavens is neither exhausted, nor withheld, 
nor intercepted ; but the nourishing dew softly, silently, 
yet copiously, drops down from above. See Gideon's 
fleece I How dry ! But he spreads it abroad to catch 
the dew of heaven. And there fell upon it, not here 
and there a scattered drop, but such a copious supply 
that it was completely saturated, "andwhen he arose early 
in the morning, and thrust the fleece together, he wrung 
out of it a bowl full of water." (Judges vi. 37, 38. ) Fine 
emblem this of Israel's daily and abundant supplies from 
the God of all grace, when, instead of wandering in the 
wilderness, he rests secure in the land of his inheritance. 
Fruitful heavens make a fruitful soul. Hence believers 
become like the " garden of the Lord ; joy and gladness 
shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of 
melody ." (Isaiah li. 3.) 

5. The last source of their felicity arises from exul- 
tation in him who hath given them the victory. " Happy 
art thou, O Israel : Who is like unto thee, O people 
saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is 
the sword of thy excellency ! And thine enemies shall 
be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon 
their high places !" (Verse 29.) 

We have already seen in what manner the God of 
Jeshurun hasteneth to the help of his chosen in the 
time of infirmity, of affliction, and temptation. But 
here he is called " the shield of their help ;" he is their 
defence in danger, as well as their strength in weakness. 
" His truth is their shield and buckler." (Psalm xci. 4.) 
It is the " word of truth" which serves for " the armour 



MOSES LAST WORDS. 55 

of righteousness on the right hand and on the left," and 
they are enabled to use it skilfully and successfully " by 
the power of God." (2 Cor. vi. 7.) And the same word 
of truth is " the sword of excellency," or as St. Paul calls 
it, " the sword of the Spirit." Covered with this shield, 
and armed withTthis sword, they may boldly face a host 
of foes ; for a right understanding and use of the word 
of God will be a certain defence from danger, and the 
great means of ensuring to them the victory. And 
when sin is cast out from the heart, and " Satan bruised 
under their feet," then shall " their enemies be found 
liars unto them." Those enemies who suggested the 
impossibility of such a salvation shall be proved to be 
false ; but God shall be found "faithful and just in for- 
giving their sins, and in cleansing them from all 
unrighteousness." Then shall they " tread upon their 
high places ;" the strong holds that seemed impregnable 
till death should shake them down; the constitutional 
ramparts where their easily-besetting sins were lodged ; 
even to those lofty eminences shall they ascend, and 
while treading the ruins beneath their feet, and survey- 
ing from thence the wonders God hath brought to pass, 
they shall triumph and sing the song of victory : — " We 
got not the land in possession by our own sword, nei- 
ther did our own arm save us ; but thy right hand, 
and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, 
because thou hadst a favour unto us. Thou art our 
King, O God; thou hast commanded deliverances for 
Jacob. Through thee have we pushed down our ene- 
mies ; through thy name have we trodden them under 
that rose up against us. Thou hast saved us from our 
enemies, and put them to shame that hated us. In God 



56 SERMON II. 

will we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for 
ever. Selah !" (Psalm xh. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8.) 

From the truths advanced we learn, 

1. The Nature of Christianity. — The very spi- 
rit of the Christian religion consists in this one blessing, 
the destruction of sin followed by the reign of righteous- 
ness and peace ; that "as sin hath reigned unto death," 
through the fall of Adam, "even so might grace reign 
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ 
our Lord." Nor is it possible for any man fully to 
know all the virtue there is in that name JESUS, till he 
is, saved from all his sins. Nor can any man know the 
full efficacy of his atonement, or the infinite merit of his 
sacrificial death, until the " old man is crucified with 
Christ, and the body of sin destroyed." Then will he 
" reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive 
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Neither 
can any man " know the power of his resurrection, and 
the fellowship of his sufferings," until he is made con- 
formable to his Saviour's death. Christ therefore died 
and rose again for this end, that we might be pardoned 
and made holy : That we might become " a royal priest- 
hood, an holy nation :" That " Holiness to Jehovah" 
might be written on our foreheads while we live, and 
not on our coffins when worms are devouring us in the 
grave. — O then, let us follow after holiness. And let us 
pray, that the reign of righteousness may become uni- 
versal in the church, and so shall it soon become univer j 
sal in the world, and the whole earth shall be filled with 
the glory of God. 

2 We learn the way to happiness.— Our text con- 



• 57 

tains a full answer to the inquiry, " Who will shew us 
any good ?" — God here shews us every good in one : 
Be saved, and be happy. Happiness is to be sought for> 
not in the pleasures of the world, nor in the acquisition 
of riches, nor in the attainment of honour, nor in the 
smiles of men, nor in the learning of philosophy, nor in 
the seclusion of a monastic life, nor in the society of even 
the holiest saints : but in sanctity itself. To be holy 
is, to be like God ; and he who is like God, must of 
necessity have the highest enjoyments that man can have 
out of glory : For he dwells " in God, and God dwells 
in him. ,, Let him, therefore, who desires happiness, 
seek it in the attainment of that salvation which Christ 
has purchased for every man, and which he is now ready 
to bestow. 

3. The present happiness and triumph of believers are 
only a prelude to their more complete happiness, and 
their more glorious triumph at the morning of the re- 
surrection. — However holy and happy they may be on 
earth, still theirs is not an unmixed state of felicity. 
They may be " troubled on every side, perplexed — per- 
secuted — cast down 1 ' — have many severe, painful afflic- 
tions, as distressing as " a thorn in the flesh ;*" and, while 
suffering, "■ a messenger of Satan may be permitted to 
buffet them f and they must suffer these things, " be- 
cause the body is dead on account of sin," even while 
"the Spirit is life because of righteousness.'" Still they 
are happy in being "the saved of the Lord" from sin, 
though not from temptation, and sorrow, and death. 
But yet a little while and the scene shall be changed : 
" The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible." The God of Jeshurun shall be 
seen riding upon the heavens in the help of his saints, 

E 



58 SEEMON II. 

and in his excellency on the sky. He shall appear 
without sin unto their salvation : The last enemy, death? 
shall be destroyed: And the happiness of all the redeemed 
of the Lord being now full and complete, they shall 
shout forth their final triumph, saying, " O death, where 
is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks 
be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Amen ! 



SERMON III. 
THE AWAKENED SINNER'S STRUGGLES. 



What shall we say then f. Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay, I had 
not known sin, but by the law . For I had not known lust, except the 
law had said, Thou shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the 
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For with- 
out the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once : But 
when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the com- 
mandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For 
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew 
me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, 
and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God 
forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, ivorking death in me by that 
which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding 
sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual : But I am carnal, sold 
under sin. For that which I do, I allow not ; for what I would, that 
do I not ; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would 
not, I consent unto the laiv that it is good. Now then it is no more I 
that do it, bat sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, 
in my flesh) divelleth no good thing : For to will is present with me ; 
hut how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good thai I would, 
I do not : But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that 
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that divelleth in me. I 
find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 
For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man : But I see 
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and 
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O 
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the 

mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin 

Rom. vii. 7—25. 

It is of the utmost importance to observe, that in these 
words the apostle is not describing the state and expe- 



. 



60 SERMON 111= 

rience of a Christian believer ; but the condition of cm 
awakened sinner ; who is seeking for that deliverance 
from the guilt and power of sin which every believer in 
Christ has already obtained. Unless this point be well 
understood, we shall be in danger of lowering the stand- 
ard of scriptural Christianity ; and of forming an erro- 
neous judgment of our own real character, by concluding 
that we are the children of God, before we have entered 
into that hallowed liberty wherewith Christ makes all 
free who are sons of God. Not only so, but we shall 
probably, in a great measure, rest satisfied in a state of 
bondage, conceiving that deliverance from sin is unat- 
tainable on this side the grave ; and that we can never 
hope, without presumption, to rise higher in holiness 
than Paul, who, notwithstanding the eminence of his 
attainments, was constrained to cry out, " O wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the bodv of 
this death ?" 

This is not the language of Paul the apostle, but of 
Saul of Tarsus, after he was awakened, and while he 
was yet in the pangs of the new birth. But when he 
was "born of God, he sinned not," for he was then "a 
new creature." An account of Saul's justification is re- 
corded in Acts ix. 17, 18 : " And Ananias went his way, 
and entered into the house, and putting his hands on 
him, said — Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that 
appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent 
me, that thou, mightest receive thy sight, and be filled 
with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from 
his eyes as it had been scales : And he received sight 
forthwith, and arose, and was baptized." Now shall 
we suppose that when "he was filled with the Holy 
Ghost," he still continued " carnal, sold under sin ?'" 



THE AWAKENED SINNER'S STRUGGLES. 61 

Or that when he received a commission to go unto the 
Gentiles, (Acts ix. 15, 16, 20,) that, by preaching unto 
them the everlasting gospel, he might " turn them from 
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God," he was himself still under the power of Satan, 
and, though unwillingly, " led captive by the devil at 
his pleasure ?" — The notion is both unscriptural and 
absurd. 

That St. Paul is not, in the text, portraying the 
character, or describing the experience of a child of 
God, is so obvious a truth, that one cannot but wonder 
how a contrary opinion should have ever become cur- 
rent in the Christian world. No one doubts but that 
the apostle is writing of Christians in the fifth, sixth, 
and eighth chapters of this same Epistle to the Romans; 
and, were the mind uninfluenced by any peculiar pre- 
judices, it would be impossible to avoid seeing, that, in 
those chapters, he is describing a character exactly the 
reverse of the one spoken of in the text. Believers are 
" freed from sin :" (vi. 7.) Yea, " they are dead to sin ;" 
(vi. 11;) and sin "has not dominion over them." 
(vii. 14.) But the individual here mentioned has " sin 
dwelling in him;" (vii, 17;) and "he is carnal, sold 
under sin." (vii. 14.) — Believers "yield their bodily 
members as instruments of righteousness unto God ;" 
(vi.13;) but here we have one mentioned who is "brought 
into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members." 
(vii. 23.) — Believers are " justified by faith, and have 
peace with God ;" (v. 11 ;) they have "no condemna- 
tion." (viii. 1.) But here we find a guilty creature 
slain by the law, and lying under its sentence of con- 
demnation, while he acknowledges it to be " holy, just, 
and good." (vii. 10—12.)— Believers are happy ; they 

e 3 



62 SERMON III. 

" rejoice in hope of the glory of God ;" (v. 2 ;) " glory 
even in tribulations;' 1 (v. 3 ;) "joy in God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ ;" (v. 11 ;) have received " the 
Spirit of adoption ;*" (viii. 15 ;) are " heirs of God, and 
joint heirs with Christ ;" (viii. 17 ;) boldly enquire, "It 
is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth ?" 
(viii. 33, 34.) And are " persuaded that nothing shall 
be able to separate them from the love of God. 1 ' (iii. 39.) 
But here the apostle brings forward one who is deeply 
miserable ; he is full of complaints ; he feels a continual 
inward warfare, and is worsted in every conflict ; and 
his distress having reached to a height bordering on 
despair, in the anguish of his soul he cries out, " O 
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me ?" Now 
from this comparing of scriptures in the same Epistle, 
it must surely be evident, that the apostle is not in all 
of them speaking of the same individual in the same 
stage of Christian experience ; but that in those chap- 
ters he is describing the " common salvation" of all 
believers, and in this seventh chapter the conflicts of one 
who desires that salvation of which he is not yet in posses- 
sion. 

But, to put the matter beyond dispute, the apostle 
gives us three notations of time, which do distinctly 
shew to what period of his life he refers in the text. 
The first occurs in chap. vii. 5 : " When we were in the 
flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did 
work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." 
Observe, says he, sin thus reigned, " when we were in 
the flesh :" that is, in our native, carnal, unregenerate 
state, (see viii. 7, 8.) before we were renewed by the 
Spirit, and walked in the Spirit : " But now," he con- 
tinues, (verse 6,) " we are delivered from the law ;" 



THE AWAKENED SINNER S STRUGGLES. t>3 

from its condemnation, through faith in Christ Jesus, 
who " is the end of the law for justification to every 
one that believeth ;" — " that being dead wherein we were 
held ;" dead to sin, wherein we were held in bondage, 
previous to our " believing with the heart unto right- 
eousness ;" — " we should serve in newness of spirit, and 
not in the oldness of the letter." The apostle having 
thus introduced and guarded his subject with the utmost 
caution, proceeds, throughout the rest of the chapter, 
to enlarge upon the topic he had mentioned in the fifth 
verse. — Again, to prevent any abuse of the statement 
he was making, in the ninth verse he thus speaks, " I 
was alive without the law once." As though he had 
said, " Beware, O Laodicean Professors, who are at ease 
in Zion, and content while under the power of sin : 
Beware ; I speak not of what I now am, but of what I 
was once; even before the commandment came, and after 
it came, till I was delivered through Jesus Christ my 
Lord."—- The third notation of time is in the word 
" now," with which he begins the eighth chapter ; and 
by which he concludes and guards the whole. Here 
St. Paul brings in himself as enjoying the same happy 
liberty with all his Christian brethren to whom he was 
writing. To them he had said : (vi. 22 :) u But now, 
being made free from sin and become servants to God, 
ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlast- 
ing life." And then, having treated at large of his own 
spiritual bondage until he was brought into liberty, he 
shews how he also was " made free from sin, and became 
a servant to God, and had his fruit unto holiness;" 
and concludes by drawing a sure inference, to the truth 
of which he was assured all his Christian brethren would 
testify, " Therefore, there is now no condemnation to 



64 SERMON III. 

them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after 
the flesh, but after the Spirit " And in this manner 
I, PauJ, do now walk and live : " For the law of the 
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from 
the law of sin and death." (viii. 2.) 

These remarks, I trust, will serve to establish this 
one truth, that in the text St. Paul is unquestionably 
writing, not of a believer in our Lord Jesus, but of 
a convinced sinner. I shall make the truth, thus esta- 
blished, the basis of the present discourse; and pro- 
ceed to consider 

I. The condition of a sinner before he is awakened. 

II. The means by which he becomes awakened. 

III. The state of his soul while awakened. 

IV. The way of obtaining deliverance and salvation. 

I. The condition of a sinner before he is awak- 
ened ; especially if he be a decent, moral man, like him 
of old, who, with apparent devotion, said, " O God, I 
thank thee, that I am not as other men are." 

His state is one of ignorance, carnal security, and pride. 

1. Ignorance veils his understanding: " I had not 
known sin," says the apostle, " but by the law ;" (7 ;) 
which implies, that until the law was applied to his 
heart, he had, during all the previous years of his life, 
remained deeply ignorant of sin. — He knew not its 
nature; that a willing thought of evil, or a wrong 
temper, or an irregular desire, is sin ; any one of those 
things being a transgression of that law which extends 
to the " thoughts and intents of the heart." — He knew 
not the source of sin. He did not know that the 
" heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately 
wicked ;" that " from the heart," so far as the prevent- 



THE AWAKENED SINNERS STRUGGLES. 6*5 

irig grace of God does not influence it, " proceed evil 
thoughts ;" yea, that " every imagination of the thoughts 
of man's heart is only evil continually.'" (Gen. vi. 5.) He 
gloried in his privileges as a son of Abraham, without 
being humbled by the recollection that he was a son of 
Adam : Nor did he consider, that, though he naturally 
inherited Adam's corruption and depravity, he could not 
naturally inherit Abraham's faith and piety. — He knew 
not the workings of sin. He perceived not its wiles 
and deceitf ulness ; nor how it mingled with all his 
actions, the most sacred as well as the most common. 
So that neither while he was studying the law at the 
feet of Gamaliel, nor while reading it in secret, nor 
while listening to it, and to the expositions of it which 
were given in the synagogue, was he performing one 
scripturally good deed, by which, " according to the 
law," he could have been justified. " All his works 
before justification had in them the nature of sin ;" be- 
cause they proceeded from evil principles ; or at best, 
from mixed principles f&o that, as they were not the fruit 
of faith and love, he was continually "coming short of the 
glory of God. 1 ' — He knew not his own corruptions and 
evil propensities ; neither how deeply they were rooted 
in his heart, nor how great a strength and influence 
they exerted, nor in how many innumerable instances 
he was under their influence and power. And because 
he was, touching the external righteousness which the 
ritual law required, blameless ; and because his outward 
moral and religious conduct were unblameable in the 
eyes of men ; therefore, he thought himself righteous 
in the sight of God. But in truth he was a sinner : 
God, and the holy angels, knew him in no other charac- 
ter. He was walking on heedlessly, in the smoothest 



66 SERMON III. 

path of that broad way which leadeth to destruction. 
How could it be otherwise, seeing he had never entered 
the strait gate of evangelical repentance ? 

% But he was easy and secure. V Without the 
law," says he, " sin was dead." (8.) " Without the 
law !" What a striking expression ! Why, he read 
the law daily, he was zealous for it, and perhaps in a 
great degree he inwardly reverenced it ; but his " eyes 
not being opened to behold its wonders," the end was 
not answered for which it was given. It was with Saul 
as it is with multitudes who have law and gospel toge- 
ther in the Bible : He was " without it" while he had it, 
without any spiritual understanding of what it con- 
tained, without any correct views of its nature and 
requirements ; so that the study of the law ministered 
to his pride, instead of serving to convince him of sin. 
In reading it, he felt satisfied with one of those vain 
imaginations which are natural to the heart of man, — 
an idea of having done his duty ; when, alas ! he per- 
formed not even the first of duties, " repentance towards 
God," nor saw how necessary that repentance was to save 
him from perishing everlastingly. — He was secure while 
in this state, because " sin was dead." It did not work in 
such a manner as to hurry him into any great outward 
excesses of evil. It existed, but its power seemed to 
lie dormant ; the crafty adversary of souls avoiding to 
present those temptations which, by plunging him into 
gross sin, might, when the Spirit of God touched his 
conscience, alarm his fears and disturb his awfully 
dangerous tranquillity. Such being his condition, 
"sin being dead" in him, he would probably be led to view 
with indignation, rather than pity, those who were 
openly the servants of sin, and in his self-righteous 



THE AWAKENED STNNEIt's STRUGGLES. 67 

zeal blame them with severity, unmingled with compas- 
sion ; not at all suspecting that " the strong man armed*" 
who made their bondage so miserable, held him in a 
bondage no less degrading, only that he "kept his 
goods in peace." 

3. This false security was increased by the pride of 
his heart. Not only, says the apostle, " was sin dead 
without the law ;" but, he adds, " I was alive without 
the law once." (9.) Though dead in trespasses and sins, 
in my own judgment of myself, in the estimation I formed 
of my own character, " I was alive ;" righteous, in the 
divine favour, and in the way to inherit life eternal. He 
viewed his performances, his exact strictness, his consci- 
entious regularity, with secret complacency and delight; 
and, notwithstanding some occasional failures, which he 
probably sincerely deplored, he was generally pleased 
with himself, and satisfied with his own condition. He 
had no dread of futurity, no alarming apprehensions of 
the wrath of God. Why should he fear ? Having kept 
" all the commandments from his youth up," he was 
ready to ask, " What lack I yet ?" What duty can I 
perform that I have neglected? He was "a Pharisee 
of the Pharisees ;" a Pharisee of the strictest kind. Not 
one of those sordid, hypocritical wretches whom Christ 
so often rebuked with a just and tremendous severity ; 
but he was one of those who might here and there be 
found, who endeavoured to keep the law, " without 
offending in one point."" In this manner Saul of Tarsus 
lived. He laboured to obey : He " went about" with 
great care and pains, to " establish his own righteous- 
ness :" And he thought he had succeeded. His righte- 
ousness was one of "the things which he counted gain 
to him.'" So great gain, that, with it, he expected to 



68 SERMON III. 

purchase heaven according to the terms of the law. 
Thus was "he alive without the law once." — And in 
this state of ignorance, security, and pride, he con- 
tinued until that memorable day when he was aroused 
from his lethargy, and awakened from his delusive 
dreams, by the mighty power of God. 

II. The means by which the sinner was awakened. 

I. The outward instrument was the moral law. "I 
had not known sin but by the law ; for I had not known 
lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet? 
(7.) But was not Saul of Tarsus awakened by an extra- 
ordinary appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ unto him, 
as he was on his way to Damascus ? — No ; that extra- 
ordinary appearance was a circumstance connected with 
his awakening : But neither the supernatural light that 
shone round about him, — nor the voice of Jesus himself, 
addressing him from heaven, " Saul, Saul, why perse- 
cutest thou me ?" — would have been effectual, either to 
his conviction or conversion, without the accompanying 
iizfluence of the Eternal Spirit, applying the law to his 
heart. It is the Spirit who convinces of sin, and he con- 
vinces by the law ; for " by the law is the knowledge of 
sin." Therefore, at the moment " a light shone round 
about him," and he fell to the earth, a still more glorious 
light shone within him, shewing unto Saul the Pharisee 
that he was Saul the sinner ; " the chief of sinners." 
He was then made conscious, that though he had ab- 
stained from what he conceived to be a violation of the 
third commandment, and would not even pronounce the 
Ineffable Name, yet was he " a blasphemer," because he 
had most awfully reviled the Lord's Anointed ; and that 
he had notoriously broken the second table of the law ; 



THE AWAKENED SINNER'S STRUGGLES. 69 

for, instead of " loving his neighbour as himself," he 
had been " a persecutor and injurious." The law then 
was the grand instrument of awakening his soul, and as 
a " schoolmaster it brought him to Christ." It brought 
him to Christ as a sinner, and taught him to pray unto 
that Jesus of Nazareth whom he had before despised, 
and abhorred, and rejected, and against whose disciples 
he had been so exceedingly mad, " haling both men and 
women to prison." — Let none therefore despise the law : 
It is of vast utility both to saints and sinners ; it gives 
the latter to feel their need of Christ, and by its salutary 
and wholesome warnings preserves the former from 
departing from him. 

2. The excellency of the moral law is perceived by 
the sinner when he is awakened by its instrumentality. 
Hear penitent Saul's confession : " Wherefore the law 
is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." 
(12.) " The commandment was ordained to life," though 
" I have found it to be unto death." (10.) He acknow- 
ledges the excellency of the whole moral code in general, 
and the peculiar excellency of that commandment which 
is levelled at his most easily besetting sin ; even of the 
commandment which saith, "Thou shalt not covet:" (7:) 
Of that commandment also he specially owns, that " it 
is holy, just, and good." — " The law is holy" in its 
origin ; God who is " glorious in holiness" being its 
Author : — Holy in its nature ; it is " a transcript of the 
Deity," and knows no enemy but sin : — Holy in its ten- 
dency and design : — And the character of holiness was 
impressed upon it, by the very circumstances that 
attended its delivery from Sinai, the people being com- 
manded to sanctify themselves before they drew near to 
receive it from God. And such is the law still. The 



70 SERMON II r. 

apostle does not tell us what it was under the Jewish 
dispensation, but what he found it to be under the gos- 
pel dispensation, after the Son of God " had ascended 
up on high, and received gifts for men.''' " The law," 
says he, " is holy:" Christ hath neither altered its nature, 
nor lessened its demands ; but he hath established the 
law by incorporating it into the gospel. — When originally 
given to the Jews, it was given in connection with their 
sacrificial system, and it was designed to convince them 
of the great necessity of it ; And now, that Christ hath 
been offered up, it remains to convince men of the abso- 
lute need there is of his atonement ; that, without the 
shedding of his blood, there could be no remission of sins. 
And when God brings a man to enjoy the blessings of 
the new covenant, he does, as it were, distinctly recog- 
nize the ten commandments amongst the chief of those 
blessings. For while he saith, Cfc I will be merciful to 
their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities 
will I remember no more ;" he also declares, " I will 
put my laws into their mind, and write them in their 
hearts ; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be 
to me a people." (Heb. viii. 10 — 12.) The law then is 
now holy. — It is also "just:" Just in all its require- 
ments; they all spring from the most perfect equity, 
and command man to be equitable, first to God, and then 
to his fellow-men. — And the law is " good," or benevo- 
lent ; for the same God of love gave it, who hath since 
given a clearer manifestation of his mercy in the gospel 
of his Son. 

The law is good or benevolent, as it respects the design 
for which it hath been given : " It was ordained to life? 
This was originally the intention of God in granting a 
law to man in Paradise : It was designed to preserve 



THE AWAKENED SINNER'S STRUGGLES. 71 

him from sin; and was thereby "ordained," or appointed, 
to be the means of preserving his natural and spiritual 
life, and of preparing him, by obedience during his 
state of trial, for that eternal life which God might 
have graciously bestowed upon him. The end for 
which the law was originally given, is still answered, in 
a great degree, in those who find, in the Second Adam, 
that favour and image of God which they lost in the 
first. For viewing it as " ordained in the hand of a 
Mediator ;" (Gal. iii. 19 ;) it is a great means of pre- 
serving the life of God in their souls. It teaches them 
the need they every moment have of the atoning blood, 
and of the continual grace of the Holy Spirit, to enable 
them to walk in gospel-obedience, even in that " love 
which is the fulfilling of the law." 

But the design of the law, " as ordained to life,'" can 
only be answered in a holy creature ; in man before the 
fall ; or, according to the terms of the gospel covenant, 
in fallen man after he is restored, and " created anew in 
the image of God in righteousness and true holiness." 
Hence the awakened sinner, who subscribes to the excel- 
lency of the law, is not able to keep it ; and being with- 
out justifying faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, he proves 
the law to be unto him " the ministration of condemna- 
tion ; the ministration of death." (2 Cor. iii. 7—9.) " The 
commandment," says he, " which was ordained to life, 
I found to be unto death." (10.) It shewed him his 
guilt, and pronounced sentence upon him as a criminal, 
dooming him to suffer all that misery, to lie under the 
weight of those heavy curses, to bear all that eternity of 
punishment, which every transgressor of the law justly 
deserves. The law neither promised him life as a sin- 
ner, nor gave unto him a principle of life ; but its glare 



72 SEltMON III. 

shewed him his spiritual death, and left him under its 
power, while it doomed him unto death eternal. Thus 
the poor guilty sinner not only heard of its spirituality, 
but in his own experience " he found? or proved, " it 
to be unto death." 

3. But we must not forget, nor even slightly mention, 
the great Agent who gave the law all its power. We 
live especially under the dispensation of the Spirit. God 
forbid, therefore, that we should forget to honour the 
Spirit ; since, in the most absolute sense, we acknow- 
ledge that without him there can be " nothing good." 
The apostle refers very much to his agency in the eighth 
chapter ; and to his influence he alludes in that signifi- 
cant expression in the text, u When the commandment 
came, sin revived, and I died." (9.) " When the com- 
mandment came" with light and power to my conscience, 
as though it were then given for the first time ; and to 
me particularly, as though it belonged to me, more than 
to any other sinner upon the face of the earth. Saul had 
often read, and had often heard the law, " Thou shalt 
not covet ;" but it never particularly struck his atten- 
tion, nor convinced him of his awfully guilty state, till 
that memorable day when the commandment came with 
an energy that could only proceed from the Spirit of 
God. And yet it is a fact especially worthy of our 
observation, that while the Holy Spirit, who is the only 
source of light, and power, and grace, was producing 
conviction of sin in the mind of so extraordinary a man 
as Saul, whom he designed to make a most distinguished 
vessel of honour, by constituting him the Apostle of the 
Gentiles; yet, even on such an occasion, that divine 
and eternal Spirit, whose wisdom is infinite, did not 
choose to work by any new, immediate, extraordinary 



THE AWAKENED SINNERS STRUGGLES. 73 

inspiration proceeding from himself, but by the medium 
of that law which had been given for ages, and which 
shall continue unto the end of the world. Thus did God 
the Spirit "magnify the law, and make it honourable;" 
and, as it were, testify of its sufficiency, and suitable- 
ness, and excellency, as a means of awakening sinners, 
and of turning the heart to God. 

We have seen hy what means the sinner becomes 
awakened, let us now observe 

c 

III. The State of his soul while awakened, and 
before he finds rest in the Redeemer. 

Let us observe His Convictions: (Verses 7 — 14:) 
His Conflicts ; (15—23 :) And His Despair. (24.) 

1. Let us trace his experience, and follow the train of 
Convictions that are felt in his heart,— -He is convinced 
of his sinfulness. " Nay, I had not known sin but by 
the law ; for I had not known lust, except the law had 
said, " Thou shall not covet? (7.) The eyes of his 
understanding are enlightened, and he sees that unholy 
and irregular desires are sinful. He now perceives that 
the law takes cognizance of them ; and that, though 
those desires may be hidden from human penetration, 
they are reckoned as " transgressions'" by Him who 
searcheth the heart, and who requireth truth, or an 
exact conformity to his will, " in the inward parts." He 
is convinced that if evil desires be reckoned as sin, — *as 
indeed they are, being of themselves contrary to the 
law, and the germ of the foulest deeds, — then he has 
sinned in innumerable instances ; and, notwithstanding 
his fair appearances, must in future take his station 
amongst publicans and harlots, and learn from them in 
what manner to apply unto God for mercy. — His con- 

F 



74 SERMON III. 

mictions deepen, and he is shewn more fully the depravity 
of his heart:, " Sin," he cries out, "taking occasion 
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of con- 
cupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. For I 
was alive without the law once ; but when the com- 
mandment came, sin revived, and I died." (Verses 8, 9.) 
Here he laments, n.ot merely the existence of sinful de- 
sires, but their workings in his soul, and the deplorable 
condition to which he was brought, by the strength and 
power of his corruptions. " Sin," says he, — -that is, the 
carnal mind ; the principle of evil ; and in particular 
that sin of coveting, the guilt of which lay heaviest on 
his conscience ; instead of submitting to the requirements 
of the law without any resistance, "sin took occasion 
by the commandment" to exert itself more vigorously, 
thereby truly exhibiting its own horrid nature. For 
sin, u the carnal mind, is enmity against God : For it 
is not subject to the law of God ; neither indeed can it 
be." (Rom. viii. 7.) Therefore " sin took occasion by the 
commandment to work? — to become, as it were, a most 
active principle, all fermentation ; to work " in him," — 
in the very depths of his heart \ not merely one kind of 
evil, but " all manner of concupiscence," — every kind 
of sinful desire that could possibly have existence in a 
wretched descendant of fallen Adam. It is true, that, 
owing to the various degrees of preventing grace; the 
different measures of divine influence, which God in 
sovereign wisdom is pleased to give unto the children of 
men, before conversion, that " his own purpose accord- 
ing to election may stand ;" (Rom. ix. 11 ;) there arises 
a great difference in the practice^ and also in the general 
state and temper of the mind of the unregenerate. But 
it is no less true, notwithstanding this observable dif- 



THE AWAKENED SINNERS STRUGGLES. 75 

ference, that there exists in every one of them, while 
unrenewed, and considered simply as fallen creatures, a 
strong inclination, propensity, and tendency towards 
every hind of evil, the very worst sins not excepted. It 
is only owing to the grace of God, that every man does 
not become a Cain, a murderer of his brother. The 
apostle, therefore, in reference to his awakened state, 
did not express himself in too strong language ; but, 
under the influence of the Holy Ghost, he " spake forth 
the words of truth and soberness," when, with inex- 
pressible grief, he acknowledged, that " sin wrought in 
him all manner of concupiscence :" Lust, pride', anger, 
wrath, every evil that can proceed from a " carnal mind." 
The power of the Spirit, while with him as a " Spirit 
of bondage unto fear," repressed those evils in some 
degree ; but, by the light of the Spirit, he saw them in 
the dark den of his heart, and he felt " the motions of 
sins" from day to day. Before the commandment 
came, sin lay concealed in the soul, and the exterior life 
was blameless ; but when the law attempted to check 
sinful desires, sin made a violent resistance, which served 
to bring all the corruptions of the heart to light. As 
a stream, that has a foul and muddy bottom, may flow 
on with a tolerably apparent clearness, while there is no 
obstruction made to its progress ; but when its course is 
suddenly checked, it recoils, and stirs up all the filth 
that had lain undiscovered, exposing it on the very 
surface; — just so it is with the awakened sinner, when 
the stream of his Pharisaic life has been opposed in its 
progress, by the holy law of God. He then finds that 
his " heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately 
wicked." Hence he acknowledges, "when the com- 
mandment came, sin revived? It had lain dormant in 

f2 



76 SERMON III. 

his heart before, but now it was aroused to stir itself. 
Before, it had been secret enmity against God ; but now 
it became open and avowed enmity. It came forth to 
place itself, as it were, in array against the divine law - T 
and though in this awful contest the thunders of Sinai 
made it tremble , those thunders could not make it yield. 
It seemed to have within itself an inexhaustible stock of 
vigour : " It revived ;" it not only had strength and 
power, but it was a reviving strength*a reviving power ; 
nor could it be subdued until the thunders and the 
lightnings of Sinai had passed away, and the wondrous 
cross appeared. The contest began at Horeb ; but it 
was ended at Calvary. An arrow dipt in blood gave 
sin the deadly wound ; it revived no more. 

But that hour of salvation was not yet come to the 
awakened sinner. We have traced his conviction of sin 
and depravity; another prominent evil is now shown 
unto him, and one of which the Pharisee had great need to 
be made sensible,— the pride of his heart. " For sin, taking 
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it 
slew me." (11.) " Sin, 1 ' the carnal mind, wrought 
within him in divers and in opposite ways. At one hour, 
it wrought in him all manner of concupiscence ; and at 
another period, it ministered to a spirit of self-righteous- 
ness. But in both instances, (O how deeply is man 
fallen !) it made the holy law of God itself subservient 
to its own vile purposes and designs : " It took occa- 
sion by the commandment" thus to work in his soul. 
(See verses 8, 11.) This sin within him, after stirring 
up his corruptions, and making him, in heart at least, a 
greater transgressor than ever, (amazing to tell of its 
deceitfulness i) would appear to fall in with the law, 
and seek to compromise for past disobedience by in- 



THE AWAKENED SINNER^ STRUGGLES. 77 

creased strictness and regularity of life in future. Hence 
the awakened sinner begins to be " turned aside" from 
the way of penitence and godly sorrow, by his own 
" deceived heart." The first terrors of conscience 
having a little subsided, he tries to cleave to his old 
principles, and again and again sets about establishing 
his own righteousness, endeavouring to come up to that 
superior degree of virtue which the law requires. But, 
alas ! repeated failures only serve to plunge him into 
deeper distress ; and at length draw from him the 
lamentable confession, " Sin," the pride of my heart, 
66 hath deceived me" with false notions of my own 
strength^ and false hopes of being saved by rny own 
righteousness ; and it has thereby " slain me," — brought 
me into such utter condemnation, that all my hopes 
of being saved in this way are cut off. I am as a 
slain man, who has no power to make one single effort 
more. 

These repeated failures produce in him a deeper con- 
viction of the aggravated nature of sin. " Was then 
that which is good made death unto me ? God forbid I 
But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me 
by that which is good ; that sin by the commandment 
might become exceeding sinful." (Verse 13.) Far from 
throwing any imputation of blame upon his Maker, or 
upon his holy law, he is anxious to clear both, and 
owns his utter vileness before God and man. He asks, 
" Was the law, which is good, made death unto me ?" 
As though he had said, Was the law prepared and con- 
stituted purposely for my condemnation? Made for 
my death ? Made more strict and severe than was 
necessary, purely to aggravate my distresses, and to 
augment my eternal misery ? Away with the insinuation, 

f 3 



78 SERMON III. 

whether it proceed from licentious sinners, or from the 
bottomless pit, or from the sore ranklings of my own 
heart ! Though I have in my sad experience " found 
it to be unto death,'' " God forbid" I should conceive 
that " the law was made death unto me," — the source of 
spiritual death, because it instrumentally convinces me 
of it. God forbid that I should think, that, either from 
its own constitution, or in the intention of the Lawgiver, 
it is the originating cause of all the wretchedness I feel. 
The law does not create sin, but makes " sin appear" 
and exposes all its hideous deformity to open view. 

The awakened sinner is sensible, that the cause of 
all his misery does not arise from any outward thing, 
but from within himself. Hence, having cleared the law, 
he goes on with his mournful confessions: But "sin," 
the carnal mind, is the cause of all, which, by opposing 
the law, " appears to be sin," shews its own real nature, 
so that no softer name, as error, or infirmity, can be 
given to it. Yea, this sin "working death in me 
by that law which is good," is hereby " shewn to be 
exceedingly sinful." Its sinfulness exceeds human de- 
scription, or even human conception, and can only be 
fully known by that holy Lord God who gave the pure 
and holy law, and who would not pardon the transgres- 
sors of it without the death and sacrifice of his Son. 

Thus at length he is brought to a thorough knowledge 
of himself. " For we know that the law is spiritual ; but 
I am carnal, sold under sin." (Verse 14) The law i& 
spiritual, and requires the obedience of the heart : 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and 
with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself!" 
(Luke x. 27.) This law also requires spiritual worship 



THE AWAKENED SINNERS STRUGGLES. 79 

from a spiritual and holy mind. But such an obedience 
I cannot render ; such sacrifices I cannot offer ; for u I 
am carnal," — the very reverse of what the law shews I 
ought to be. Carnal in my mind : So deeply am I fallen, 
that my spirit is sunk to a state of servitude and depend- 
ance upon my bodily appetites for all its enjoyments. My 
mind is "a fleshly mind ;" " earthjy, sensual, devilish." 
Alas ! " I am sold under sin P I am sin's slave ! Sin's 
very drudge ! And that not by conquest merely, but, 
as it were, by purchase. ** I am sold under sin ;" — self- 
sold! By reason of my native inherent depravity, I 
have surrendered up myself to its service, and cannot 
get released. Formerly indeed I was its willing slave ; 
but now I feel its tyranny. " I am sold under sin ;" the 
tyrant tramples on me ; governs me with almost irresist- 
ible power ; and makes my dreadful yoke heavier and 
more galling every day. I struggle, but cannot conquer. 
— In this manner does the penitent bemoan his unhappy 
condition, and complain of the guilt and power of sin; 
which leads us to consider another circumstance in his 
present experience : 

2. The inward Struggles and Conflicts of his soul with 
sin. (Verses 15 — 23.) 

Here we perceive the difference between an awakened 
and an unawakened Sinner. He who is unawakened 
sins, in many cases, ignorantly, and without any deep 
concern. He may feel occasional touches of sorrow, 
when he is brought into any outward distress by his 
sins; or, in certain transient moments or hours, he 
may in some degree possess penitential grief, when 
the Spirit of God strives with him in a more than ordi- 
nary manner. But in general he lives without a know- 
ledge of sin, and makes no effort to overcome it It is 



80 SERMON HI. 

not so with the man who is thoroughly awakened. He 5 
feels the bitterness of sin, and would fain obtain deliver- 
ance from it. He has such inward conflicts with his 
warring lusts, such a contrariety of desires do work 
within him, that it seems as if he had two souls inhab- 
iting the body. Still the evil principle is too powerful 
for the good, so that he cannot get the mastery over sin. 
This shews unto him, that conviction of sin is not conver- 
sion from sin ; and that unless the Spirit, who hath 
awakened, do also regenerate him, he must for ever re- 
main unholy, and, after all his efforts, die in his iniquities, 
and perish to all eternity. The inward warfare is well 
described in the text ; and agrees most exactly with the 
state of every awakened sinner, while he is yet struggling 
to enter into the liberty of the children of God. He 
thus speaks : 

" For that which I do, I allow not:" (verse 15 :) — That 
evil which I do through the influence of the governing 
principle^ the carnal mind, I do not allow or approve. 
My enlightened understanding perceives its sinfulness, 
my awakened conscience condemns me for the evil at the 
very moment I yield to it; yea, and in some degree, 
through " the measure of grace given," my desires are 
opposed to it ; especially in the absence of temptation. 
But neith er knowledge, nor terror, nor desires, can stem 
the rushing torrent of corruption ; I am borne away in 
spite of myself, for my heart is yet unchanged. — " For 
what I would, that do I not." (Verse 15.) — The good I 
desire to effect, and do even strive to accomplish, (espe- 
cially during gracious visitations and drawings from the 
Father,) " that do I not ;" " it is high, I cannot attain 
unto it ;" I continually fall short, and notwithstanding 
all my resolutions, desires, and determinations, I still 



81 

find that I have not the power, for I have not 
faith and love. On the contrary, " what I hate, that 
do 1." (Verse 15.) — The sin my soul abhors, on account 
of which I loathe myself, which has cost me a thousand 
tears, and brought me often to the very verge of 
despair; still that very thing do I. Alas! alas! sin has 
still the dominion ! 

c 

But observe how he reasons within himself. " If then 
I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law 
that it is good." (16.) As though he had said, Shall 
I then, conscious of my own weakness, complain of the 
law ? Is the laxv sin ? God forbid ! Nay, even my 
unsuccessful efforts to obey, clear the law from so shock- 
ing an imputation. For if I do that which I would not, 
my very unwillingness to sin, (which unwillingness pro- 
ceeds not from nature, but is a gracious fruit of the 
Spirit, or rather a gracious seed which shall hereafter 
bring forth fruit when I am born of God,) does tacitly 
admit the excellency of the law, and " consent unto it 
that it is good.'" 

In the midst of this painful struggle, the poor awak- 
ened sinner is not altogether unconscious of the beginning 
of a divine change in his heart. Notwithstanding the 
discouragements that sink him to the earth, he is enabled 
to perceive a difference between his present and his 
former condition. " Now then it is no more I that do it, 
but sin that dwelleth in me. 1 ' (17.) " Now then it is 
no more I that do it," with approbation and delight, as 
formerly. That period is past. If I cannot conquer 
sin, I will no longer, I will never more, heartily love it ; 
it is ■" no more" the willing " I," but " sin." Ah ! here 
is the source of misery, " sin that dwelleth in me." 
Were it only sin without him, as seen in evil example, 



82 SERMON III. 

he might have strength and resolution to shun and avoid 
its contagion : But it is " sin" within him, in his very 
nature. Sin " dwelling" within him ; always at home, 
and ready to answer to every call of temptation. O 
what shall the sinner do ? Whither can he flee from 
his own heart ? 

These views of indwelling sin are painfully humbling 
to his soul. He makes confession thereof: " For I 
know that in me, (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good 
thing : For to will is present with me ; but how to per- 
form that which is good, I find not." (18.) It is not 
with him a matter of speculation, a theory, a conjecture, 
but he says " I know," by bitter experience, " that in 
me ;" yea, I say not merely in man in general, but " in 
me," a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, the blame- 
less Saul ; " in me," " that is, in my flesh," — my carnal 
mind, and my corrupt body,- — " dwelleth no good thing :" 
— Absolutely no good, not the smallest degree of any 
good, no good thought, no good desire, no good design. 
So utterly does the humbled sinner renounce self : Sin- 
ful self, and righteous self, he alike disclaims. Or rather, 
he at length sees, that he has no righteous self to disown, 
that his righteousness is but as filthy rags, and that he 
is both guilty and helpless before God.— For, says he, 
" to will is present with me," through the influence of 
the Spirit shining into my darkness, and " making me 
willing in the day of God's power ;" but " how to per- 
form that which is good, I find not ;" nor can I, without 
the communication of more grace, when God shall ac- 
complish in me " all the good pleasure of his goodness, 
even the work of faith with power." This sense of 
inability is so constantly before his eyes, and so deeply 
and painfully felt in his heart, that he repeats it over 



THE AWAKENED SINNERS STRUGGLES, 83 

again in nearly the same language as before : " For the 
good that I would, I do not : But the evil which I would 
not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no 
more I that do it, but sin .that dwelleth in me." (Verses 
19, 20, compared with verses 15, 16, 17.) 

The mourning sinner, having thus reasoned concerning 
his miserable condition, gives us, in the following words, 
the conclusion to which he had come : " I find then a 
law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 17 
(21.) " I find then a law C so he calls the power of 
sin, because the tyrant under whom he is sold assumes a 
kind of authority and right to govern ; and often pleads 
for the necessity and utility of that authority in a very 
plausible manner ; nor can " the law of sin be reversed" 
till the soul be created anew in Christ Jesus, and placed 
under the governance of the law of love. " I find then 
a law, that, when I would do good," — am on the point of 
engaging in it, or have just commenced some effort to do 
good : Then, just on that day, in that very same hour, 
" evil," native evil, this " indwelling sin," is " present 
with me." It seems not to wait for any outward tempta- 
tion to call it forth ; but of its own accord, from its 
own " enmity against God," it rises up, and stirs at once 
to prevent me from effecting good, and even from seek- 
ing unto God, as I desire, for salvation. O how does 
this grieve the poor unhappy sinner i He can hardly 
retire to pray, or take up the word of God to read, or go 
to his house for instruction, but in some way or other 
this " evil is present with him ;" so that he seems to be 
every day " sinking deeper in the mire, where no stand- 
ing is." 

Is he then wholly without comfort ? Has he never any 
gleam of a dawning day ? Has he no kind of enjoy- 



84 SERMON III. 

ment ? That cannot be affirmed. Blessed be God ! he 
is not in hell, and therefore not in utter despair. You 
shall hear him speak of a kind of " delight ;" a tempo- 
rary delight which he hath, even while " sowing in 
tears :"' " For I delight in the law of God after the in- 
ward man. 1 *' (22.) He delights in that very law which 
condemns him. He loves its purity, though he does 
not possess it ; and he desires the favour of the Law- 
giver, though he feels that he is angry with him because 
of his transgressions. But alas ! those transgressions 
are continually increasing, so that his delight in the law 
of God is not of long continuance ; it is often inter- 
rupted, and sometimes wholly absorbed in terror and a 
dread of condemnation. For scarcely has he expressed 
that delight, but he adds, " I see another law in my 
members, warring against the law of my mind, and 
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in 
my members. 1 ' (23.) As though he had said, When for 
a moment the power of sin seems to be suspended, and 
I begin to feel an inward delight in the law, that very 
delight revives its power ; " I see''' — my approving glance 
at the law is suddenly diverted, by the re-appearance of 
my old enemy : — " I see another law in my members, 11 
my bodily members, which are sinful as well as mortal, 
" the desires of the flesh 11 according with the naturally 
" sinful desires of the mind. 11 (Ephes. ii. 3.) And that 
" other law in my members 11 rushes forth to the contest, 
and hastens to " war against the law of my mind ; 11 that 
is, against the law of God, which I would fain adopt 
and receive as the law of my mind, that by it alone I 
might be governed. But sin has yet the mastery. Just 
now, when I have been delighting in the law of God, it 
wars against me ; it has success ; it has gained another 



THE AWAKENED SINNERS STRUGGLES. 85 

victory ; I am overcome once more ; it is " bringing me 
into captivity ," dragging me back again to my old bond- 
age, "to the law of sin which is in my members." 
Alas ! Alas ! how am I fallen ! The whole man is cor- 
rupt : Body and soul are alike under the dominion of 
sin. I am just where I was; I am still sin's slave; for 
" of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought 
into bondage." (2 Pet. ii. 19-) 

Hence having been both convinced of sin, arid yet 
still kept in bondage to it, notwithstanding his various 
conflicts with it, the awakened sinner's misery comes to 
a crisis — 

3. He is brought to Self-despair. 

" wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death ?." (25.)— Dr. Adam Clarke 
observes, " There seems to be here an allusion to an an- 
cient custom of certain tyrants, who bound a dead body 
to a living man, and obliged him to carry it about, till 
the contagion from the putrid mass took away his life." 
We may well suppose, that the cry of such a person 
would be, " Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 
me from this dead body ?" — What a picture of misery is 
here exhibited. The sinner s own corrupt nature is his 
body of death; from it he cannot possiby release himself ; 
he carries his loathsome burden night and day, and who- 
ever else knows happiness and peace, the burden of his 
cry is — " O wretched man that I am !" He knows not 
what to do, nor whither to turn, nor to whom to fly. 
Of one thing, however, he is at length fully convinced ; 
that he cannot deliver himself, and that if some one 
come not to his aid he must die, and perish to all eternity. 
Hence he becomes an inquirer-— " Who shall deliver 
me ?"— And that inquiry is not long made, before he 



86 SERMON III. 

finds an answer. He is directed to Jesus Christ ; he 
believes on his name, and obtains deliverance in a mo- 
ment, and with joy and gratitude he exclaims, " I thank 
God" that he hath delivered me, " through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." 

IV. The way of obtaining deliverance and salvation. 
It is sought by Prayer; — it is obtained by Faith; — it is 
acknowledged by Thanksgiving. 

1. It is sought by Prayer. — Of Saul of Tarsus it was 
said, by the Lord, unto Ananias, " Behold he prayeth :" 
He prayeth unto that Jesus of Nazareth whom he once 
hated, and who had appeared unto him in the way. On 
his name he was calling for salvation. The burden of 
his supplications was, " Jesus, thou Son of David, have 
mercy on me f" So great was the distress of his soul, 
that for the space of three days and t?hree nights he did 
neither eat nor drink ; but in the private house at Da- 
mascus to which he had retired, without making himself 
known to any one, he continued alone, repenting bitterly 
of his sins, and seeking pardon and deliverance in earnest 
prayer to God. And it was while Saul was in the act 
of prayer, that the Lord Jesus appeared in a vision to 
Ananias, and sent him to the distressed sinner with a 
message of comfort and mercy. Deliverance had not yet 
come to his heart, but it was preparing for him while he 
was groaning in secret before the Lord. In this state of 
soul, Ananias found him ; and, far from encouraging 
him to rest in it, he exhorted him to persevere in " call- 
ing upon the name of the Lord." " And now," said 
he, " why tarriest thou ?" Why shouldest thou groan 
any longer, " O wretched man that I am, who shall deli- 
ver me ?" Jesus, who i( appeared unto thee in the way 



THE AWAKENED SINNEK,\s STRUGGLES. 87 

as thou earnest," is ready to deliver thee now. " Arise," 
therefore, " and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, 
.calling on the name of the Lord." (Acts xxii. 16.) He 
obeyed ; and, by calling on the name of the Lord, he 
was saved. We see, therefore, that while he had not 
power to conquer sin, he was incessant in the use of 
that power which the Spirit had given him ; — the power 
of uttering his complaint in the dust before God, and of 
" confessing his sins," that he might find God " faithful 
and just in forgiving his sins, and in cleansing him from 
all unrighteousness." And this will always be the con- 
duct of a penitent sinner. Whenever there is a true 
awakening of soul, there will be an earnest crying to God 
for mercy : For when the Spirit becomes " the Spirit of 
bondage unto fear,' 1 ' he does as naturally inspire a cry 
for deliverance, as when he becomes " the Spirit of 
adoption" he inspires the filial cry of " Abba, Father V 
The blessing is not then far distant: The praying sinner 
shall soon become a saved sinner, and a praising be- 
liever. " Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear 
him, that glory may dwell in our land ;" (Psalm lxxxv, 
9;) — the glory of freedom from the law of sin and 
death. 

2. The blessing of deliverance, thus sought by prayer, 
can only he obtained by Faith. In the address of 
Ananias unto Saul, we do not find any express mention 
of faith ; but in the words, " And now why tarriest 
thou ? Arise, and be baptised" faith was undoubtedly 
implied ; for " he that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved." Nor was it until he had justifying faith in 
Christ that he obtained deliverance from his sins. A 
faith in Christ he certainly had while a mourning peni- 
tent : He believed him to be the Messiah ; his very first 



88 SERMON III. 

cry, after he was smitten to the ground, was* " Who art 
thou, Lordf And in a general sense he believed him 
to be the Saviour. And this faith had its fruit ; it 
assisted him to cry unto God for mercy ; it enabled him 
to resist sin. But until he received that power from on 
high, whereby he was enabled specially to believe on 
Jesus as the justifier of the ungodly, he was not able to 
obtain mercy, or to overcome his sins. That appro- 
priating, justifying faith is, in an eminent sense, " the 
gift of God ;" so that the penitent sinner cannot believe 
when he will, but when God is pleased to give him the 
power; and yet God will not give that power unto 
him, unless he continue earnestly crying, " Lord, I 
believe, help thou my unbelief. " This is the very best 
prayer a penitent sinner can use, if he be careful to enter 
into the spirit of it. In this manner Saul continued 
crying unto God, until he was " saved by grace through 
that faith which is the gift of God ; and which is not 
of works, 1 ' does not spring from any of those works 
which a penitent can perform ; but is quite a superior 
principle to any thing that he professes, and comes 
directly from above : — >" Not of works, lest any man should 
boast. 1 ' (Ephes. ii. 8, 9.) Accordingly he himself ac- 
knowledges how deeply he was indebted to the grace of 
God, when, many years afterwards, he related his conver- 
sion to Timothy. " And the grace of our Lord was 
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in 
Christ Jesus." (1 Tim. i. 14.) Here he tells us, that 
faith and love were both received in that same hour, 
when "the exceedingly abundant grace of God" was 
manifested in causing him to " obtain mercy." (1 Tim. 
i. 13.) And the remembrance of that manifested grace 
drew forth from his heart this cheering declaration, 



THE AWAKENED SINNER S STRUGGLES. 

u This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep- 
tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners :— Of whom I am chief."— (1 Tim. i. 15.) Hail 
happy, humble triumphant, believing Paul ! Thou 
needest not " indwelling sin" — to humble thee ; God's 
pardoning love has done that, witlwut the help of sin ! 
Yea, and thou hast far more excellent humility, than 
thou hadst when groaning forth, " O wretched man that 
lam !" — Then thou wast a humbled sinner ; now thou art 
ahumbled saint! Then thy humbling made thee wretched, 
now it makes thy heaven ; and the joyous language of 
thy lowly, believing heart is, "I thank God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 ' 

3. This great salvation is acknowledged by thanks- 
giving. The saved apostle arrogates nothing to himself 
To God he ascribes all the glory, through that Re- 
deemer whose blood purchased salvation, and whose 
Spirit brought it home to his heart. The poor carnal 
man, who was " sold under sin," is now set at liberty. 
Christ enfranchised him by purchase; and the Spirit 
brought him the enfranchisement, knocked off his fetters, 
and bade him go free. He is not only saved from con- 
demnation " through the remission of sins that are past ;" 
but a power is given him of continuing to be saved 
from any future condemnation, because he is saved from 
the dominion of sin. He is now so far renewed in the 
image of God, as that " the righteousness of the law," 
(Rom. viii. 4 ,) — of the law of Christ, that gospel obe- 
dience which is required of all who are justified, and 
which, through the merits of Christ, is accepted of 
God, as well pleasing in his sight, instead of Adamic 
obedience, — " may be fulfilled in him," by the power of 
the indwelling Spirit, who has taken up the place of 

G 



90 



SERMON III. 



indwelling sin, and who teaches him to walk not after 
the flesh, but to be obedient to his voice, and to be led 
by him, that he may continue to be a son of God. Then 
shall he every moment be 

As far from danger as from fear 
While love, Almighty love is near. 

O how glorious a salvation is this ! How worthy that 
God who is " holy in all his ways, and righteous in all 
his works V How worthy that Redeemer who came 
" to bruise the head of the serpent," to " destroy the 
works of the devil ;" " to condemn sin in the flesh." 
To condemn sin ; to pass sentence of death upon it, " in 
the flesh ;" not in his own flesh, for he was without sin, 
but in the hearts and lives of all believers. And this 
sentence of condemnation against sin is executed, when 
" our old man is crucified with Christ, and the body of 
sin destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." 
(Rom. vi. 6.) How worthy is such a salvation of the 
eternal Spirit, who is denominated the Spirit of holiness, 
the Spirit of might, and the Spirit of power ; the Com- 
forter, who is to abide with us for ever, and whose 
office it is to glorify Christ unto us, by shewing us his 
utmost power to save ! And how well does " it become 
the just to be thankful" to the eternal tri-une God 
" who hath thus saved them, and called them with an 
holy calling, not according to their works, but according 
to his own purpose and grace, which was given them in 
Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Tim. i. 9.)— - 
u O sing unto the Lord a new song ; for he hath done 
marvellous things : His right hand, and his holy arm, 
hath gotten him the victory. Sing unto the Lord, bless 
his name : Shew forth his salvation from day to day. 



THE AWAKENED SINNER^ STRUGGLES. 91 

Declare his glory among the Heathen, his wonders 
among all people. Praise him for his mighty acts : 
Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Let 
every thing that hath breath praise the Lord ! Halle- 
lujah I Praise ye the Lord V (Psalm xcviii. 1 ; xcvi. 
% S ; cl. 2, 6.) 

4. " Men and brethren, unto you is the word of this 
salvation sent." By nature ye are all unholy ; by 
actual transgressions ye have all become guilty ; and 
the strength of your original corruption is vastly in- 
creased. " If we say, that we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say, that 
we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word 
is not in us. 1 ' (1 John i. 8, 10.) Let us not therefore 
attempt to deny either original or actual sin ; let us 
neither say, that " we have no sin" by nature ; nor that 
" we have not sinned." But while you acknowledge 
these awful facts, let me inquire, Have you never felt 
the plague of your own heart ? Have vou never groaned 
and been troubled before God on account of your sins 
and sinfulness ? What ! Never ? Then are you " dead 
in trespasses and sins :" In the most deplorable condi- 
tion a sinner can be on this side of hell. A corrupt, 
vile, loathsome, abominable wretch appearing carelessly 
or proudly before God in his house ; chained to the body 
of this death ; and yet, through the amazing deceitful- 
ness of the human heart, loving, instead of loathing, 
the putrid mass, and vauntingly boasting of righteous- 
ness and liberty. May God the Holy Spirit smite thy 
conscience, O sinner ! Thou art past any effort of 
mine, or of any other man : Thy case is so desperate, 
that thou art farther from heaven than even " publicans 
and harlots," whose crimes have well nigh driven them 

g 2 



m 



SERMON III. 



to despair. What, a Pharisee be saved ! One who is 
not " as other men are !•" Who can bring him to the 
feet of Jesus Christ ? O thou Almighty Spirit, illus- 
triously perform thine own office, as the convincer of 
sin ! O thou who didst send home the law to Saul of 
Tarsus, repeat the miracle of grace ; let thy word at 
this moment come with power to that man's unhumbled 
heart, that he may groan out his misery unceasingly, 
until he is justified through faith in the name of Jesus. 
O distressed penitents ! This is the day of your de- 
liverance ! The Lord, even Jesus, who hath appeared 
unto you, causing you to abhor yourselves, and repent 
as in dust and ashes, hath sent me unto you, that ye may 
receive your spiritual sight, and be filled with the Holy 
Ghost. Why tarry ye ? seeing that " now is the ac- 
cepted time, that now is the day of salvation*" Believe 
in Jesus. Use that faith you have ; whereby you are 
already " moved with fear." Ask God's great gift, the 
gift of the Holy Spirit, to convince you " of righteous- 
ness," as he hath already convinced you of sin. How 
easy is it for the Spirit of God, to work in you " a death 
unto sin," and to give you a " new birth unto righteous- 
ness i" And faith in Christ, as your atoning Saviour, 
shall make the Spirit's power your own. " This then is 
the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath 
sent." At present, this is almost your only work ; it is 
the main thing to be attended unto. In prayer, believe ; 
in hearing the word, believe ; and you shall be saved. 
O penitent ! Dost thou now believe on the Son of God ? 
It is he that talketh with thee. Even now he is speak- 
ing to thy heart. He is helping thee in thy present 
struggle to get into liberty. He is listening to all thy 
groanings in self-despair. He hears thy heart's com- 



THE AWAKENED SINNER'S STRUGGLES. 93 

plainings : — " O wretched man that I am ! Who shall 
deliver me ?" And he saith, I will deliver thee : " I 
who speak in righteousness, mighty to save :" I take 
the prey from the mighty, and deliver the captive from 
the tyrant sin's pretended lawful power : I hasten that 
the captive exile may be loosed. I am come : I am 
here ; the word is nigh thee, O mpurning sinner, even 
in thy mouth, and in thy heart. Behold ! I proclaim 
the acceptable year of the Lord. I appoint unto thee 
beauty for ashes ; the oil of joy for mourning ; the 
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.^ " Go 
forth," ye ransomed, believing, pardoned sinners ; and 
" shew yourselves" clothed with the garments of salva- 
tion, and covered with the robe of righteousness, that 
God may be glorified, for his mercy in releasing the 
captives, and setting you free from the law of sin and 
death. 

O ye that are " the saved of the Lord ;" stand fast 
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free." 
Be continually " perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 
So shall you ever retain a grateful and lively sense of 
the mercy of your heavenly Father who hath delivered 
your shoulder from the yoke of sin ; and so shall you 
be preserved by his power through faith unto final sal- 
vation. If you "go on to perfection," you " shall 
never fall." But having a most blissful assurance of 
final and eternal glory, you shall be enabled to triumph 
in the language of believing, obedient, and holy Paul, 
saying, "lam persuaded, that neither death, nor life, 
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the 
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 ' 

g 3 



SERMON IV. 
ELIJAH'S TRANSLATION. 



And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My Father, my Father, the chariot of 
Israel, and the horsemen thereof! And he saw him no more. — 2 King& 
ii. 12. 

" All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness : That the man of God may 
be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." 
This declaration of St. Paul refers to the scriptures of 
the Old Testament, the whole of which were given by 
divine inspiration. Of course its history is inspired, as 
well as its doctrines and prophecies. " In old time holy 
men of God were moved, by the Holy Ghost," to write, 
or to collect, those valuable records of individuals, and 
of nations, which have been preserved by the providence 
of God, and transmitted unto us for our edification. 

But what the apostle hath affirmed concerning the 
different gifts of the Spirit, in the Christian church, 
may perhaps be accommodated to the various degrees of 
inspiration given in the preceding ages. " Now there are 
diversities of gifts, hut the same Spirit. And there are 
differences of administration, but the same Lord. And 
there are diversities qf operations, but it is the same God 
which worhelh all in alV (1 Cor. xii. 4 — 6.) The same 
"kind and measure of inspiration was not necessary for 



Elijah's translation. 95 

the historian, whose province it was to preserve the me- 
mory of past or present facts, as for the prophet who 
had to " shew things to come ;" but God gave unto 
every man " gifts according to his office." 

Those, however, who wrote the Sacred History, were 
undoubtedly so far guided by the Spirit of Truth, as to 
be incapable of error. They have recorded only the 
things that are true. They were influenced by Him, both 
in the selection of facts, and in the manner of recording 
them, so as to permit several of the comparatively un- 
important particulars to sink into oblivion ; while those 
events only should stand forth in a prominent manner, 
that would be most useful and important to all future 
generations. 

It is because "the same Spirit," " the same Lord," "the 
same God," inspired both the sacred historians and the 
prophets, and in later ages the apostles, that we find in 
numerous instances such a natural accordance between 
scripture history and scripture doctrines. They do 
mutually illustrate each other. An example occurs in 
the text. One of the most glorious doctrines revealed 
in the word of God is, a future resurrection of the dead, 
and the final glorification of all the redeemed, who shall 
ascend to meet their Lord in the air, " and so be for 
ever with the Lord." The history, the delightful his- 
tory of Eij ah's Translation, does, as it were, make that 
glorious immortality visible even to our outward senses. 
We read it over — we enter into the subject — we pause — » 
we gaze upwards— we catch a glimpse of the prophet — 
we see " mortality swallowed up of life" — we make 
Elisha's language our own—" My Father ! My Father ! 
the chariot of Israel !, and the horsemen thereof !" 



96 



SERMON IV. 



Elijah, whose name signifies J ah, " My God," was a 
native of Tishbeh, (1 Kings xvii. 1,) a city beyond Jor- 
dan, in the tribe of Gad, and in the land of Gilead. 
He was born many years after the separation of the ten 
tribes from the two remaining tribes of Judah and Ben- 
jamin ; and consequently he was, strictly speaking, an 
Israelite, as contra-distinguished from one born in Judah. 
His labours seem to have been chiefly confined to the 
kingdom of Samaria. He lived in the reign of Ahab, 
who was the most wicked king that ever ruled over 
Israel. Elijah's ministry, according to the chronology 
of commentators, continued fourteen years; that is, 
from before Christ 910, till before Christ 896. His 
work being then finished, he was in a most triumphant 
manner taken to his reward. It is not, however, solely 
to Elijah's Translation that I shall now divert your 
attention : I purpose to take an extended view of his 
history, which will enable us the better to understand 
the memorable event mentioned in the text, and afford 
an opportunity of endeavouring to elucidate several 
other important passages of the word of God. 

In reviewing the history of Elijah, let us consider 

I. His character as a man ; 

II. His abilities as a teacher ; 

III. His actions as a prophet; 

IV. His reward as a saint. 

Every man has certain predominant dispositions of 
mind, which form his character. And it is observable, 
of all those individuals whom God hath raised up and 
chosen for any remarkable work, that they have been 
eminently qualified for it, by the peculiar constitutional 
temperamient of the mind> which seems to mark them out 



TRANSLATION. 97 

as having been " separated to the work from their 
mother's womb."— This remark will be illustrated while 
we are dwelling on 

I. Elijah's character as a man. 

1. He possessed undaunted courage. — He was a 
Luther. It was not in the power .of man to make him 
fear. It is no mean proof of his courage, that he dared 
to be singularly good, and to adhere steadfastly to the 
faith and worship of the God of Israel, when he thought 
that " he was left alone to serve Him. 1 ' This was prac- 
tically saying, " Though all men shall be offended be- 
cause of thee, yet will I never be offended. Though I 
should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. 1 '' (Matt, 
xxvi. 33, 35.) — In the performance of his duty, he could 
face danger without the least dismay. He was on all 
occasions ready for the service of the Most High, though 
it exposed him to the utmost peril ; and when commis- 
sioned to deliver a message from God, to a wicked, and 
powerful, and wrathful king, he manifested no reluc- 
tance, but went forth and delivered it ; just in the 
manner that the Lord had commanded him. The very 
opening of his history contains a proof of the boldness 
of his spirit. "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was 
of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the 
Lord God of Israel Uveth, before whom I stand, there 
shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to 
my wordP (1 Kings xvii. 1.) This was a very ungra- 
cious method of beginning his prophetic ministrations. 
And that it exposed him to great danger, is evident 
from the direction he received, after delivering that 
threatening from God: — "And the word of the Lord 
came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn tliee 



98 SEltMON IV. 

eastward, and hide thyself' by the brook Cherith, 
that is before Jordan? (1 Kings xvii. 2, 3.) — When 
those years of drought had expired, Obadiah informed 
Elijah of the wrath of Ahab, in terms which shewed 
that the monarch was under the influence, not of occa- 
sional gusts of passion, but of deep hatred, and lasting 
resentment against the prophet : — " As the Lord thy 
God liveth, there is no nation, or kingdom, whither my 
lord hath not sent to seek thee : And when they said, He 
is not there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, 
that they found thee not." (1 Kings xviii. 10.) But 
notwithstanding this alarming account, Elijah, unmoved, 
and most firmly relying on the divine protection, said 
unto Obadiah, "As the Lord of Hosts liveth, before 
whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to-day? 
{1 Kings xviii. 15.) Elijah did not indeed go and shew 
himself unto Ahab, in the presence of an assembly of 
his idolatrous courtiers, and thus expose himself wan- 
tonly to unnecessary danger ; his courage did not thus 
degenerate into rashness ; but he sent a message by the 
mouth of Obadiah to the monarch, and Ahab, it seems, 
unattended, " went to meet Elijah." (1 Kings xviii. 16.) 
The wrathful king, soon as he saw the prophet, gave 
vent to his ire in bitter reproaches ; further he was not 
permitted to go, " the remainder of wrath was re- 
strained :" — " Art thou he thai troubleth Israel ¥* — In 
what a bold, and dignified manner, yet without any 
mixture of rudeness or contempt, did the prophet reply 
to the unjust accusation : " / have not troubled Israel; 
but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken 
the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed 
Baalim? (1 Kings xviii. 18.) Elijah makes no mention 
to Ahab of that personal hatred which he bore towards 



Elijah's translation. 99 

himself as the prophet of the Lord, but only of his 
public sins in transgressing the law and renouncing the 
worship of God for idols. 

We have a still greater instance of his courage, in his 
going to meet Ahab, at the direction of the Lord, after 
Ahab had taken possession of Naboth's vineyard. This 
was a hazardous service. Beside the displeasure of Ahab, 
he was exposed now to the active revengeful wrath of 
Jezebel, who, because the prophets of Baal had been cut 
off, had expressly sent a messenger to say unto Elijah, 
" So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not 
thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this 
timeP (1 Kings xix. £.) On receiving that message, he 
retired for a season into the wilderness ; "he arose, and 
went for his life." (1 Kings xix. 3.) Buf her threatenings 
and AhaVs anger were alike disregarded the moment that 
the Lord said unto him, " Arise, go down to meet Ahab 
king of Israel, which is in Samaria : Behold he is in the 
vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess 
it." — (1 Kings xxi. 18.) He arose and went. He met 
the king just entering upon the enjoyment of those pos- 
sessions he had, through covetousness, so perfidiously 
and cruelly acquired. The sight of the prophet made 
Ahab tremble, without any previous discourse about 
" righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." 
His conscience smote him. He feared the man whom 
he had often wished to slay. He betrayed the servility 
of his spirit, and the guilt of his mind, in the timorous 
address, — " Hast thou found me, O mine enemy T* 
(i Kings xxi. 20.) — Then did the prophet thunder 
forth, in the ears of Ahab, those terrible denunciations, 
which in substance were — ' In the place where dogs 
licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, evert 



100 SERMON IV. 

thine.'' — ' The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of 'JezreeV 
(1 Kings xxi. 19, 23.) — Thus in looking at the character 
of Elijah, throughout his life, we see the scripture adage 
finely verified-—" The righteous are bold as a lion." 

2. Elijah was a compassionate man. — Severe was he 
indeed, and even terrible to a wicked monarch, and to 
his ungodly subjects : But he was exceedingly tender 
and compassionate towards a poor widow who feared the 
Lord, though she was a Canaanite by nation. Our Sa- 
viour has noticed the prophet's visit to that poor widow : 
" But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel 
in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three 
years and six months, when great famine was throughout 
all the land : But unto none of them was Elijah sent, 
save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that 
was a widow." (Luke iv. 25, 26.) It is with admirable 
propriety that Jesus Christ remarks, the prophet was 
" sent" unto her, distinctly recognizing in that expres- 
sion the providence of God. Never was visit more sea- 
sonable. Never was the pious adage more strikingly 
illustrated : — " The time of extremity, is the time of 
God's opportunity." — " As the Lord thy God liveth," 
said she to Elijah, " I have not a cake, but an handful 
of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse : And, 
behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and 
dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.'" 
(1 Kings xvii. 12.) Thus she spake. But God's "thoughts 
were not as her thoughts." He would not rain down 
upon her manna from heaven : But he would make that 
last meal the means of yielding her day by day her daily 
bread, until the famine should cease in the land. God 
can work miracles at any time, but his promise can Jail at 
no time. The poor widow " received a prophet in the 



Elijah's translation. 101 

name of a prophet, and she found a prophet's reward.'* 
Under her roof he abode many days : And in the day of 
distress, when her son was afflicted, and died, with 
what tenderness and compassion did he " take him out 
of her bosom, and carry him up into the loft, where he 
abode, and lay him upon his own bed." (1 Kings xvii. 
19.) With what holy fervour did he intreat the Lord, 
" that his soul might come into him again,'" until the 
Lord heard his cry, " and the soul of the child came 
into him again, and he revived." And when his prayer 
had been answered, with what joy did he " take the child, 
and bring him down out of the chamber into the house, 
and deliver him unto his mother," saying with the most 
tender and heart-felt delight, u See ! thy son liveth V 
(1 Kings xvii. 20—23.) O if Israel had but feared God, 
and served him, as did that descendant of the idolatrous 
Canaanites, how happy would Elijah have been in his 
ministrations ! Instead of being a " Boanerges, a son 
of thunder," he would have been a " Barnabas, a son of 
consolation." — That he was willing to give consolation, 
when it was needed, even to degenerate Ahab, may be 
inferred from what appears to have been Elijah's last 
message to that Prince : " And the word of the Lord 
came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how 
Ahab humbleth himself ^before me F" Dost thou indeed 
observe his bitter distress, on account of the late denun- 
ciations of my anger, with feelings of tender sympathy ? 
And dost thou desire to be the bearer of some tidings of 
comfort unto him ? Thou hast my authority to say, 
" Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not 
bring the evil in his days : But in his son's days will I 
bring the evil upon his house." (1 Kings xxi. 29.) Elijah, 
so far from repining, like Jonah, at the long forbearance 



102 SERMON IV. 

of God, doubtless communicated the respite to Ahab, 
humbled as he was, with the most heart-felt satisfaction 
and joy. The compassion that flows from a heart under 
the influence of the grace of God, is irresistibly moved 
at the sight of an enemy in distress. Such was the com- 
passion enthroned in the heart of Elijah. 

3. He was a man of great self-denial. — On account of 
the prophet's exceedingly temperate habits, his wants 
were few, and could be supplied without much difficulty. 
Hence he was easily sustained at the brook Cherith, by 
its pure stream, and by the " bread and flesh which the 
ravens brought him in the morning and n the evening." 
(1 Kings xvii. 5, 6.) Afterwards when the brook was 
dried up, and he went to sojourn with the widow at 
Zarephath, we see, he did not desire very costly fare. As 
she was "gathering of sticks, he called to her, and said, 
Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I 
may drhik. And as she was going to fetch it, he called 
to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread 
in thine hand?'' (1 Kings xvii. 10, 11.) And on the 
plain food which " the barrel of meal," and " the cruse 
of oil," supplied, he subsisted in her house for many 
days. And, a few years after this period, when his wants 
were miraculously supplied by an angel, as he " slept 
under a juniper tree" in the wilderness, nothing more was 
brought than " a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse 
of water." (1 Kings xix. 5, 6.) This was enough. The 
prophet had learned, in " whatsoever state he was, there- 
with to be content." Being fed with the hidden manna 
of divine love, he could joyfully forego the luxuries, and 
even the comforts of life. 

There appears to have been many points of resem- 
blance between the prophet and John the Baptist ; on 



Elijah's translation. 103 

which account, John is pointed out by the name of Elijah. 
(Mai. iv. 5 ; compared with Matt. xi. 14, and xvii. 10 — 
13.) Like John, it is probable, Elijah remained chiefly 
in the deserts " until the time of his shewing unto Israel." 
And as John had " his raiment of camel's hair, and a 
leathern girdle about his loins ;" (Matt. iii. iv ;) so Elijah 
is described as being "a hairy man," that is, wearing, a 
coarse, hairy garment, and "girt with a girdle of leather 
about his loins." (2 Kings i. 8.) Such a garment was ne- 
cessary for Elijah, who was so often obliged to retire into 
the wilderness, to preserve his life, where he must have 
been frequently exposed to the nightly frosts and dews. It 
might, however, have given him an austerity of appear- 
ance, especially when contrasted with the softness and 
effeminacy of the delicate priests of Baal. Such having 
been the usual dress of Elijah, some ages after, when his 
reputation became established as by common consent, 
those false Prophets who aspired to the same honour in 
which he was held by posterity, and who pretended like 
him to be called in an extraordinary manner to the pro- 
phetic office, were fond of imitating his appearance, and 
of putting on "a rough garment to deceive." (Zech. 
xiii. 4.) Of those pretensions, however, it seems they 
were soon made ashamed. — It is not improbable, that, 
during the period of Ahab's humbling, it was a desire 
to imitate the prophet's austerity, that induced him to 
"put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fast, and lie in sack- 
cloth, and go softly." (1 Kings xxi. 27.) — Elijah being 
thus a man of self-denial in all his habits, he probably 
acquired a great degree of bodily vigour, which tended 
to increase the firmness of his mind. He was not a 
"reed shaken with the wind," as he would have been, if 
he had " clothed himself in soft raiment ;" but he had 



104 SERMON IV. 

" his body in subjection," and learned to " endure 
hardness ;" to bear great fatigue, and persecution, with- 
out "becoming weary and faint in his mind V 

4. Elijah was a man of ardent zeal for God. — He was 
deeply concerned for the divine glory, and felt a con- 
stant, holy jealousy for the honour of Jehovah. " I," 
says he, " have been very jealous for the Lord God of 
Hosts." (1 Kings xix. 10, 14.) And this jealousy for 
God's honour, was mingled with uncommon grief for 
Israel's sin. He deeply mourned, that they had been 
guilty of " forsaking the covenant, throwing down the 
altars of the Lord, and of slaying his prophets with the 
sword." (1 Kings xix. 10, 14.) It was the fervour 
of his zeal which pointed his addresses with such just 
severity, in all of which he aimed at the destruction of 
sin, the salvation of the sinner, and the glory of the 
Lord. Nothing but a zeal for God, — a zeal " according 
to knowledge," — a zeal that was the purejlame of' love, — 
could have enabled him to persevere in his work, sur- 
rounded as he was with the most overwhelming difficul- 
ties, and without so much as one individual, till Elisha 
was raised up, to strengthen his hands in the Lord. He 
was "always zealously affected in a good cause," there- 
fore he always laboured in that good cause, and bore 
reproach for its sake. He loved the Lord his God with 
all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and 
with all his strength ; and he loved his brethren as him- 
self: Therefore did he continue "steadfast and im- 
moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," 
even though he feared that " his labour was in vain in 
the Lord." 

Such were the most remarkable traits in the character 
of Elijah. As a Man, God had graciously endued 



Elijah's translation. 105 

him with extraordinary courage, sweetly blended with a 
tender, compassionate spirit; he had formed him to 
endure hardness ; and he had given him a constitutional 
ardour of spirit, which, under the sanctifying and 
directing influence of divine grace, produced in him a 
burning zeal for the divine glory. Endued with such 
dispositions, and inclined to such habFts, he was prepared 
to do the w r ork of his day, the work to which he had 
been called by the Holy Spirit, and for which he was 
eminently fitted by those mental qualifications, those 
spiritual gifts, which had been bestowed upon him. 

II. His abilities as a Teacher. 

1. His principles were sound. — All Israel had for- 
saken the Lord, and were given to idolatry ; but Elijah 
had not forgotten the great commandment of the law, 
<fc Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shalt thou serve." He knew and he taught the way of 
God in truth. He constantly appealed to the law and 
to the testimony ; and, by a powerful application of it to 
the conscience, he sought to turn the heart of the chil- 
dren of Israel " back again" to the God of their fathers. 
When he officiated as a priest of the Most High, in the 
presence of four hundred and fifty of Baal's Prophets, 
and before assembled Israel, he seems to have prepared 
his sacrifice as the law directed; with some additional 
circumstances, however, which that extraordinary occa- 
sion rendered necessary. Now it was this implicit obe- 
dience to the known will of the Most High, this deep 
veneration for the law, which, more than his own extra- 
ordinary gifts as a prophet, made him " a man of God," 
and rendered him " perfect, and throughly furnished 
unto every good work." His eye was single, and his 

H 



106 SERMON IV. 

whole body full of light : His principles were sound, 
because they were all drawn from the written law ; and 
therefore he was enabled to teach the way of God per- 
fectly. 

2. His piety was deep. — Of this every one must feel 
convinced who considers that, from the sacred history, 
it is evident God never rendered any man in a more 
than ordinary manner useful, who had only an ordinary 
share of piety. Moses, Isaiah, Paul, and John, were 
all men who lived within the vail, and dwelt in the 
holiest place. Elijah also enjoyed very deep commu- 
nion with God. Only witness the wonderful power he 
had with God in prayer. With him it only seemed 
to be " ask and have."" Ci The effectual fervent prayer 
of a righteous man availeth much," saith St. James; 
and he immediately refers to Elijah as an example. 
" Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, 
and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain : And it 
rained not on the earth by the space of three years and 
six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven 
gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."" 
(James v. 16 — 18.) At first view it may appear not 
only singular, but improper, that the prophet should 
have prayed earnestly for so severe a judgment as the 
withholding of the rain from heaven. Was not this 
action inconsistent with genuine piety, and contrary to 
those feelings of benevolence, which ought to have 
ever been predominant in Elijah's mind ? If we read 
the verses with which the apostle James closes his 
epistle, and which immediately follow the passage 
before cited from him, we shall find an answer to this 
inquiry, and every difficulty will be cleared up. 
" Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and 



ELIJAH^ TRANSLATION. 107 

one convert him ; let him know that he which convert- 
eth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a 
soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." 
(James v. 19, 20.) Now at this period the whole 
Israelitish nation had most awfully " erred from the 
truth ;" and the prophet, being filled with the Spirit 
of God, by whose hallowing and clivine influence his 
own passions were all sanctified, and placed under the 
governance of the law of love, though he were naturally 
a man of like passions with us ; — and knowing also, by 
the teaching of this Spirit, that nothing less than a 
heavy national calamity would prove effectual to the 
conversion of his brethren ; — was led from the purest 
benevolence most fervently to pray, that their conversion 
might be brought about by such means rather than that 
they should be left quietly to perish in their transgres- 
sions. That judgment did issue in their national refor- 
mation ; (1 Kings xviii. 39 ;) and, without doubt, in 
the conversion and final salvation of some; and thus 
did he " save many a soul from death, and thereby 
hide a multitude of sins,'" 

It is remarkable that the prophet had this power with 
God in prayer at the commencement of his ministry, for 
the apostle James has selected an instance from the 
early part of Elijah's public labours. (Compare James 
v. 16 — 18, with 1 Kings xvii, 1.) We have no means 
of knowing whether Elijah had at all appeared as a 
public character until the day that he stood before 
Ahab. He might perhaps have been, until then, a 
private and almost unknown individual, lamenting in 
secret the profligacy of the people, and earnestly im- 
ploring the salvation of all those who lived in that 
degenerate age. It was probably while thus giving 

h 2 



108 SERMON IV. 

himself continually to prayer, that the Spirit was poured 
out upon him from on high, to prepare him for the 
ministry of the word; and, as there was no Samuel 
in Israel to shed upon him the anointing oil, it is not 
improbable, that, without this ordinary anointing, he 
received the Spirit of the Lord God, sanctifying him 
for that great work to which he had been called. And 
not being disobedient to the will of God, he imme- 
diately entered on the duties of his holy office, and 
delivered his message to Ahab, as in the immndiate 
presence of God. " As the Lord God of Israel livethj. 
before whom I stand? (1 Kings xvii. 1.) 

Doubtless this holy man enjoyed much communion 
with God in his solitary retreat at the brook Cherith.. 
Nor was he without the same source of consolation 
while dwelling in the house of the Canaanitish widow. 
There she, in answer to his praying faith, " received 
her dead raised to life again." (Heb. xi. 35.) At his 
prayer on Mount Carmel, " fire came down from heaven, 
and consumed the sacrifice :" (1 Kings xviii. 38.) At 
his prayer also, rain was given. Having dismissed the 
people, he ascended Carmel, and in the most solemn 
manner, as in the presence of Jehovah, u cast himself 
down upon the earth, and put his face between his 
knees." While he placed himself in that devout and 
prostrate posture, probably on the very spot where the 
altar had that day been erected, and an answer given 
to his prayer in the descending fire, and where the 
ashes of the burnt sacrifice might have still been con- 
suming, he bade his servant ascend to a higher part of 
the mountain and look towards the Mediterranean sea. 
The servant departed, and Elijah continued pleading 
with God. The servant returned with the message, 



'ELIJAH^ TRANSLATION. 109 

** There is nothing." Elijah, in no wise discouraged, 
bade him "go again seven times." And the prophet 
remained prostrate before God, and with increasing 
fervour did he plead, till the prayer of faith was an- 
swered, — it " availed" — it " availed much" even for 
guilty Israel. God could no longer be inflexible in 
his judgments ; prayer caused " mercy to rejoice against 
judgment ;" for lo ! "there arose a little cloud out of 
the sea, like a man's hand." The little cloud had indeed 
a most significant form, intimating that the extended 
hands of Elijah, which were " lifted up to God in the 
Heavens," while his body was reverently prostrated to- 
wards the earth, had obtained a most visible and marked 
answer to his prayer. The cloud spread; — for when 
'prayer begins to be answered, it is only the prelude of some 
mighty approaching good ; — it thickened with the col- 
lecting waters ; the wind directed and hastened it 
towards the parched land of Israel ; and over the whole 
country it burst in blessings, and the famished earth 
once more brought forth her fruit." (1 Kings xviii. 
41—46.) 

But perhaps the most intimate communion with God 
which Elijah enjoyed, the most glorious manifestation 
of " The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious," 
he was ever favoured with, was granted unto him at the 
rock of Horeb. (1 Kings xix. 11, 12.) To that sub- 
ject we shall presently refer more at large. 

Elijah's piety was as steady and lasting as it was deep. 
— He had the same power with God in prayer to the 
very last moments of his life. Hence, in full confidence 
of being heard, he said to Elisha just before his remo- 
val from earth, " Ask what I shall do for thee, before I 

h 3 



110 SERMON IV. 

be taken away from thee. 1 ' (2 Kings ii. 9.) Elisha made 
his request known, and his request was granted. 
Elijah's falling mantle shewed, that the last prayer he 
offered on earth was answered, before he was taken up 
to heaven. , 

3. As a teacher, Elijah's manner was devout. — This 
naturally results from genuine piety. Where there is 
much of the " power of godliness," in the whole exte- 
rior conduct will be manifested all the sanctity of its 
" form." Communion with God produces in the soul 
feelings of the deepest awe ; and, though God may be 
approached with unshaken confidence, as reconciled 
through Jesus Christ, yet he who thus approaches him, 
will ever feel disposed to hide his face, and place his 
forehead in the dust. We have already observed, in 
what a devout and reverent manner Elijah worshipped 
the great and Eternal Jehovah on Mount Carmel, when 
alone ; nor was his manner less reverent or devout when 
he was publicly engaged in the service of the Lord. It 
was probably owing to his uniform piety, as discover- 
able in his method of conducting the worship of the 
Lord, or of performing any religious act, that he was 
so generally designated by the appellation, " Man of 
God." It does not seem to have been given to him as a 
term of reproach, if we except one instance, (2 Kings 
i. 9, 10,) but as an acknowledgment of excellence, and 
of more than ordinary worth. It was an appellation, 
seldom, if ever, given to the ordinary teachers of reli- 
gion. Hence it was that good Obadiah had such a 
reverence for the prophet ; and that wicked Ahab, and 
even all the prophets of Baal were awed at his presence. 
His manner was not like the manner of other men. Thev 



ELIJA-Ii's TRANSLATION. Ill 

had never seen any one besides, with such devotion lift 
up his hands unto God in the heavens, or bless the peo- 
ple in the name of the Lord. 

4. His address was powerful and commanding. — The 
public discourses of the prophet are not left on record ; 
but the Evangelist Luke speaks of the " power of Elias." 
(Luke i. 17.) And if we are to judge from the effects 
that followed his ministrations, his word was with power 
indeed. In his teaching there was no lack of unction. 
One account only of his public ministry has been pre- 
served, and that account is full of instruction. The 
prophet seems to have had a peculiar talent for address- 
ing searching and powerful words to the conscience ; 
words that carried an irresistible conviction of the truth 
and importance of the subject he discussed, and that 
made the transgressors of the divine law, overwhelmed 
with shame, to become their own judges, and pronounce' 
a sentence of condemnation against their own souls. See 
Israel assembled on Carmel. With what authority did 
the prophet cry in the ears of the people, " How long 
halt ye between two opinions ? if the Lord be God, fol- 
low him ; but if Baal, then follow him." The words 
were " like a hammer ;" they smote the heart suddenly 
and irresistibly ; and the people were so convinced, and 
confounded, that, amongst all that vast concourse, not 
one was found who " answered him a word. 1 ' (1 Kings 
xviii. 21.) Thus did he, by "a manifestation of the 
truth, commend himself to every man's conscience in the 
sight of God/' 

5. His success was extraordinary. — It has been al- 
ready observed, that, at the close of the contest with the 
priests of Baal, and in answer to the prophet's prayer, 
the hearts of the sons of Israel were once more turned 



112 SERMON IV. 

unto the Lord. And that a great and general change 
was produced, is evident from the words of the 
Evangelist concerning John the Baptist : " And many 
of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their 
God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and 
power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to for 
together with] the children, and the disobedient to the 
wisdom of the just ; to make ready a people prepared 
for the Lord." (Luke i. 16, 17.) — Such a multitude of 
the children of Israel did the prophet turn from idola- 
try, — both old men and young, the fathers together with 
the sons, — that they all with one consent acknowledged 
Jehovah to be the God. And though, in after times of 
degeneracy, many of them did perhaps backslide again 
from the Most High, yet it is highly probable that 
great numbers who on that day renounced the Baals, 
and made choice of Jehovah for their God, adhered 
to him, and to his service all the days of their life. 

It is true, the prophet subsequently complained, " I, I 
only am left, and they seek my life to take it away." 
(1 Kings xix. 10 — 14.) But perhaps he did not mean, 
that he was the only individual who worshipped the God 
of Israel ; but the only prophet, or public teacher of 
religion, remaining. Obadiah had informed him, that 
on a former occasion, when Jezebel had cut off the pro- 
phets of the Lord, he had " hid a hundred men of the 
Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and had fed them 
with bread and water." (1 Kings xix. 13.) But it is 
not improbable, that Jezebel's rage at the recent slaugh- 
ter of the prophets of Baal, (1 Kings xviii. 40,) and at 
the escape of Elijah, (1 Kings xix. 2, 8,) had excited her 
to a stricter search after the prophets of Jehovah, which 
might have led to a discovery of those prophets whom 



Elijah's translation. 113 

Obadiah had concealed, and to their utter extermina- 
tion. Hence Elijah, being the last of Jehovah's pro- 
phets remaining, made before God the lamentable 
complaint : " Thy prophets are slain with the sword ; 
and I, I only am left, and they seek my life, to take it 
away." (1 Kings xix. 10 — 14.) To encourage him in 
the midst of his deep affliction for the loss of the pro- 
phets, may have been one reason why God immediately 
commanded him to anoint young Elisha to the prophetic 
office; God thereby shewing, that he can make new 
labourers, if he suffer old ones to be gathered home to 
rest by bloody persecutors. And to give him still fur- 
ther consolation, the answer of Gcd said unto him, " Yet 
I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees 
which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which 
hath not Jcissed him? (1 Kings xix. 18 ; and Rom. xi. 
4.) — Is it not highly probable, that a great portion of 
those seven thousand men were the prophet's own spiri- 
tual children, though he knew them not ? And doubtless 
his zeal for God, of which they heard more than they 
witnessed, was a great means of confirming them in piety, 
and, in those perilous times, of establishing them in the 
fear of God. 

Elijah then was exceedingly useful to his own coun- 
trymen. He was useful also to the Heathen mingled 
amongst the Jews ; especially while residing at Zare- 
phath, though the extent of his success is not preserved 
from oblivion on this side of eternity. He was useful to 
Elisha in training him to be his successor. He was 
useful to those young men in Judea who were in the 
schools of the prophets, which he visited before his 
translation. And, by the record of his life and labours 
which is preserved in the sacred volume, he has been 



114 SERMON IV. 

rendered useful to all succeeding generations, and will 
continue to be so down to the latest age of the world. 
If all these particulars be duly considered, we shall be 
convinced, that as Elijah's abilities for the ministerial 
office, whether we regard his principles, his piety, his 
manner, or his address, were very great ; so also was 
his success both extraordinary and lasting. Thus far 
Elijah's life contains a model worthy of our imitation. 
But, in the truths that follow, it would be useless to 
hold him up for an example, seeing that we are not 
placed in circumstances at all similar, nor have we it in 
our power to perform the like actions. 



III. His Actions as a Prophet. 

I do not mean those actions of his that were ordinary, 
and within his own power from day to day, as rebuking, 
instructing, and exhorting the people; but those that 
were extraordinary and miraculous, and so were mani- 
festly not so much his own acts, as the immediate acts of 
God. As a prophet his extraordinary actions were of 
three kinds — Judicial, Salutary, and Figurative. 

1. Some of the prophet's actions were judicial, — as the 
withholding of the rain from heaven by earnest prayer, 
on which particular we have already enlarged. — A 
second judicial act we have in that remarkable instance, 
Elijah's commanding the prophets of Baal tf» be slain : 
" And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of 
Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them ; 
and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, 
and slew them there." (1 Kings xviii. 40.) There can be no 
doubt of the prophet's having been especially directed by 
the Spirit of God to give such a command to the IsraeL 
ites. The whole of the preceding history, and of that 



Elijah's translation. 115 

which immediately follows, shews him to have been quite 
free from every sinful passion, and that he was wholly 
under the guidance of the inspiration of the Almighty. 
The prophets of Baal undoubtedly deserved death, not 
so much for their past wickedness in teaching the people 
to worship idols, (though in that respect their sin was 
exceedingly great,) as for their piiesent obstinacy, and 
incorrigible impenitence ; their determination not to be 
converted themselves, nor to suffer the good work begun 
amongst the Israelites long to remain. These priests of 
Baal had cried aloud from morning until noon, " O 
Baal, hear us !" And from mid-day till the Jewish hour 
of offering the evening sacrifice, they had mangled their 
bodies, and most violently intreated an exertion of the 
power of their God : And yet there was " no voice, nor 
any answer, nor any that regarded." They had been 
witnesses themselves, every man of them for himself, to 
Elijah's reproofs, and expostulations, and devotions, and 
offering. Their own ears had heard him pour forth the 
mighty prayer : — " O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac 
and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God 
in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have 
done all these things at thy word ! Hear me, O Lord I 
hear me, that this people may know that thou art the 
Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back 
again !" (1 Kings xviii. 36, 27.) Their own eyes had 
seen the astonishing answer, at the very time of Elijah's 
pouring forth his supplications : " Then the fire of the 
Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the 
wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the 
water that was in the trench/' (1 Kings xviii. 38.) But 
they were unmoved. Convinced they must have been: 
Converted they would not be. Therefore the}' joined 



116 SEttMON IV. 

not in the act of adoration : " When all the people saw 
it, [the descending fire,] they [all the people] fell 
on their faces;" but the prophets of Baal scorned to 
prostrate themselves, though they were the guiltiest of 
all : "And all the people said, The Lord, he is the God ; 
the Lord, he is the God ;" but the prophets of Baal 
would not acknowledge him, nor give unto the Lord the 
glory due unto his name. (1 Kings xviii. 39.) " Their 
heart was waxed gross, and their ears were dull of hear- 
ing, and their eyes they closed ; lest at that time of gra- 
cious visitation, when even they might have known the 
things belonging to their peace, they should have seen 
with their eyes, and heard with their ears, and should 
have understood with their heart, and should have been 
converted, and the God of Israel should have healed 
them." (Matt. xiii. 15.) Think then what would have 
been the consequence, if those incorrigible servants of 
the devil had been spared. They would have laboured 
with increased zeal and malignity to oppose the refor- 
.mation begun in the land ; and would have been the 
means of bringing down heavier judgments on the king- 
dom, than the one that was now about to be removed. 
To check therefore the beginning of a plague, the symp- 
toms of which were manifest in their hostile disposition, 
it was necessary that these prophets of Baal should be 
slain. Instant judgment was requisite, or Jezebel would 
have screened them all ; and none would have had the 
courage to execute that judgment, unless Elijah had 
given them authority in the name of the Lord ; nor even 
then probably would any one have dared to lay hands 
on the offenders, unless the prophet had remained with 
them, and, by his own presence, had encouraged them 
to " root out those evil-doers from the land. r Yet we 



Elijah's translation. 117 

are not to suppose, that their death was effected in a 
tumultuous manner. Ahab the monarch was present, 
the great patronizer of Baal, and of the idolatrous 
priests. Had the people been tumultuous, he would 
not have escaped with his life, especially considering the 
deep miseries the Israelites must have suffered by so long 
a drought, and since he was the known personal enemy 
of Elijah, whom Israel, at this sudden revolution of 
feeling, exceedingly reverenced and almost adored. But 
neither Elijah, nor the people, uttered one disrespectful 
word respecting " the anointed of the Lord." There 
were undoubtedly many of the elders of Israel present, in 
such a vast concourse as was then assembled ; the elders 
of Israel, even after the monarchical form of government 
was introduced, were the natural guardians of the law 9 
— a principle that was acknowledged, and acted upon, 
even by Jezebel ; (1 Kings xxi. 8 — 11 ;) — they would 
now naturally consent to the death of those idolatrous 
priests, since their own hearts had been turned to own 
Jehovah as their God. Those priests therefore were 
dealt with in justice, and according to the law of the 
land, which was indeed the law of God; only justice was 
executed speedily, that the guilty might have no oppor- 
tunity of escaping. 

On this occasion then, that God by whom " kings 
reign, and princes decree justice," constituted Elijah a 
righteous judge ; and invested him, for a season, with 
the same official authority and power which he gave unto 
Moses for the space of forty years. When the Israelites 
had sinned in making the golden calf, Moses commanded 
the comparatively few to be slain, wheresoever found, who 
were so guilty as still to continue rioting in the camp, 
even after he had descended from the mount, that he 



118 SERMON IV. 

might preserve the multitude from being emboldened, 
by the example of their sinning with impunity, to relapse 
into that idolatry which he knew would bring down a 
general curse upon them all : So, here, Elijah com- 
manded the four hundred and fifty vile prophets of 
Baal to be exterminated, who, probably were degene- 
rate Israelites, rather than, by suffering them to live, 
to expose the whole nation to the danger of greater 
crime, and more fearful tokens of the wrath of Almighty 
God, Nay, until the prophets of Baal were slain, Elijah 
could not prevail with God for a removal of the dearth 
which was then afflicting the land : So that, if their lives 
had been spared, the whole nation must have perished 
by famine. But no sooner were they all slain at the 
brook Kishon, than Elijah was directed to say unto 
Ahab, " Get thee up, eat and drink ; for there is a sound 
of abundance of rain." (1 Kings xviii. 41.) 

There remains another judicial act of the prophet to 
be considered, his causing the fire to come down from 
heaven, and to consume the captains, and their two suc- 
cessive companies of fifty men, who were sent to appre- 
hend him. (2 Kings i.) If we would understand this 
part of sacred history, and obviate every objection, it is 
necessary to reflect upon, not merely the insulated fact 
of destroying those men's lives, but on the action in con- 
nection with all its attendant circumstances. Ahaziah, 
the son of Ahab, was now on *the throne of Israel. He 
was an idolater ; a worshipper of the Baals. Being af- 
flicted, he sent messengers to Baal-zebub, the god of 
Ekron, saying, " Shall I recover of this disease f The 
angel Jehovah bade Elijah meet the messengers and say 
unto them, " Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, 
lhat ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron ? 



Elijah's translation. 119 

Now therefore thus saith Jehovah, Thou shalt not come 
down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt 
surely die'" {% Kings i. 3, 4.) After delivering this 
message, Elijah departed. The messengers having car- 
ried back these tidings from Elijah to the king, the king 
in his anger sent two successive companies to apprehend 
him, with the design to put him Xp death. That the 
prophet's death was designed, is apparent from the di- 
rection he received when the third captain came with 
his fifty : " The angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, Go 
down with him: Be not afraid of him? (2 Kings i. 15.) 
Such being the design of the king, the captain of each 
fifty ought to have withstood the commands of his law- 
ful prince, because they were contrary to the righteous 
laws of God, rather than have eagerly embraced an 
opportunity of intentionally becoming accessory to the 
death of so eminent a servant of the Most High. If it 
is an unquestionable duty to be subject to all lawful 
commands "for conscience sake ; ,-> for conscience sake 
also it becomes an imperious duty to refuse the work of 
a murderous persecutor, from whomsoever such com- 
mand may emanate. The righteous providence of God, 
therefore, brought these men to a summary death, at the 
very time they were seeking to deliver over Elijah to 
their king, and to destruction. Each company was sent 
with the same message, " Thou man of God, the king 
hath said, Come down? (2 Kings i. 9.) Only the 
second, who appears to have been sent before intelli- 
gence had been received of the sad catastrophe which 
had happened to the first, was rather more vehement, or 
urgent, the king being impatient of delay — " O man of 
God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly? 
(3 Kings i. 11.) These words being put in the mouth 



120 SERMON IV. 

of each messenger, we may suppose the appellation 
" man of God," was sneeringly used by the infidel and 
idolatrous monarch and his courtiers, who would fain 
attempt to disparage the remembrance of Elijah's former 
memorable actions, at mount Carmel, so as to bring the 
nation to doubt those facts ; for while they were univer- 
sally admitted as true, the remaining priests of Baal must 
have had hard work to maintain his worship, and to keep 
the people to the practice of that corrupt religion. 
Now the king and the court being idolatrous, none but 
idolaters would be promoted, especially as the priests of 
Baal had considerable influence over the king. Whence 
it follows as extremely probable, that the captain of 
each of the fifties, and his men, were all idolaters; 
they being a part of his own guards, in constant attend- 
ance upon him. Accordingly these men came to Elijah, 
and delivered the message in the same spirit in which it was 
given- Full of indignation against him for having slain 
the prophets of their gods, and glad of an opportunity 
of being revenged on him, in a taunting and insulting 
manner, and pretending to disbelieve the miracle of fire 
falling from heaven in answer to his prayer, they thus 
accosted him : — " Thou man of God, the king hath said, 
Comedown" And Elijah replied — " If I be a man of God" 
— if I am in reality what you have denominated me in ri- 
dicule, — if the former miraculous interposition of the God 
of Israel, in proving himself to be Jehovah, and the 
answerer of prayer, by sending fire from heaven, were 
real, and no pretence,— -let the miracle be repeated, with 
the awful, undeniable proofs of its reality : — " Let fire 
come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. — 
And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed 
him and his fifty." (2 Kings i. 10, 12.) God could 



Elijah's translation. 121 

have sent fire from heaven without the intervention of 
the prophet, without his uttering a single word. But 
the j udgment of God would then have been less marked 
and striking. Those scoffers did not directly sneer at 
Jehovah, or deny his power to send fire from heaven ; 
but at Elijah his servant, who had pretended to bring 
fire from heaven by prayer unto Jehovah. God there- 
fore vindicated his own honour as the hearer of prayer, 
and the honour of his chosen servant who was so dear 
unto him, by suggesting to his mind such words as 
should be an undeniable demonstration both of his inter- 
course with God, and of his acquiescence in the divine 
judgments towards the ungodly. Thus was there a 
correspondence between their punishment and their sin, 
which is generally the case in all those providences in 
which God designs to shew himself to be a judge in the 
earth. 

The evangelist Luke refers to this portion of Elijah's 
history. (Luke ix. 51 — 56.) When our Lord's disciples, 
James and John, saw that the Samaritans, through the 
influence of their national prejudices, were not willing 
to receive him into one of their villages, because " his 
face was as though he would go to Jerusalem," they 
said, " Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come 
down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias 
did ?" — A plain proof that until men have so far received 
" the Spirit of truth, as to be led into all truth ;" until 
they have so abundantly received " an unction from the 
Holy One, as to know, or understand, all things" that 
are written in the scriptures ; through the natural dark- 
ness of the human mind, they will be in danger of 
<4 wresting those scriptures to their own destruction," or 
to the destruction of their fellow men. The Saviour, 

I 



SERMON IV. 



therefore, justly " rebuked them ;" — " turned and re- 
buked them ;" — rebuked them by his looks as well as by 
the verbal reproof, — " Ye know not what manner of 
spirit ye are of." They had recently been with the 
Saviour on the Mount of Transfiguration, and seen his 
glory. There Moses and Elijah appeared unto Christ; 
the disciples saw, and knew them. (Luke ix. 28 — 36.) 
As yet they were not able to bear much honour either 
from God or man. It puffed them up with self impor- 
tance ; and they were ready to dispute with each other 
" who among them should be the greatest." (Luke ix. 
46.) Therefore, under the influence of pride and anger, 
which the cold neglect of the Samaritans awakened, and, 
on account of the late manifestation on the mount, con- 
sidering themselves to be equal to Elias whom they had. 
seen there, they were desirous, not indeed of simpry 
committing their cause to God as Elijah did, but, as 
though the elements were subject to their controul, of 
" commanding fire to come down from heaven I' 1 How 
necessary then was the Saviour's reproof! And if 
Elijah had been of the spirit, which the disciples had 
displayed on that occasion, and on others also before the 
their Pentecostal baptism, God would not have honoured 
him so signally as he did, by preserving him, and con- 
suming those who sought his destruction. The reproof 
therefore that was given to the disciples, must not be 
regarded as indirectly glancing at the spirit by which 
the prophet was actuated, since the God of Israel who 
suggested to his mind the words, — " Let fire come down 
from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty" — words 
which denote an acquiescence in a necessary judgment, 
which he saw just at hand, rather than a request that it 
might come ; and which acquiescence may, consistently 
with deep piety, may be expressed in view of a foreseen 



ELIJAH S TRANSLATION. 

unavoidable judgment, as well as after that judgment is 
past : — The God of Israel, I say, who suggested to 
Elijah's mind those words, was no other than the Son of 
man who then rebuked the disciples, and who was then 
come, " not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.'' 
But after he was risen again from «the dead, and the 
Jews had filled up the measure of their iniquities, he 
inspired John to write of his coming in the way of right- 
eous judgment — " Behold he cometh with clouds ; and 
every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
him : And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because 
of him. r) And the God of Elijah taught John— this 
same John who would have called fire from heaven, but 
who now was actuated by quite another spirit, and who 
was now all love, — even him the God of Elijah taught 
to say in view of the most awful judgments, " Even so, 
Amen !" (Rev. i. 7.) — Elijah also uttered his Amen, 
and then "the fire of God came down from heaven, 
and consumed the captains of the fifties, and their men.'" 
But the third captain, and his fifty, who feared because 
of the righteous judgments of God, were spared; and 
as they were not found fighting against God, not a hair 
of their head was permitted to perish. 

Thus we have considered at some length the judicial 
actions of this man of God, and have seen that not one 
of them is in the least derogatory to the high and holy 
character he sustained, or the sacred office he was called 
to fill. 

2. Some of the prophet's extraordinary actions were 
salutary. As for instance, the multiplying of the 
widow's barrel of meal ; the raising of her son to life ; 
and the obtaining of rain from heaven by prayer. And 
even those acts that were judicial and severe towards 

i 2 



124 SERMON IV. 

individuals, were, in their results, salutary towards mul- 
titudes, and calculated, and designed, to promote the best 
interests of men, both in time and in eternity. 

3. One of the prophef s extraordinary actions, and 
that the last, may be regarded as figurative. I mean 
the dividing of Jordan, which may be considered as an 
emblem that his work was done, and that he was about 
to receive his inheritance, and enter on his great and 
eternal reward. 

V. His reward as a saint. 

The prophet Elijah, more perhaps than any man who 
was ever called to the public ministry, had been conti- 
nually exposed to the most imminent peril of his life. 
His had been, throughout, a dangerous service : And 
now God, who had spared his life many times as by 
miracle, was pleased to reward him in a most singular 
and extraordinary manner. He not only preserved 
him from dying by the hands of his enemies, but he 
did not permit him to die at all; he translated him 
triumphantly from earth to Heaven. 

1. God made known his design unto Elijah, previous 
to that translation : And I conceive the period when 
that design was made known to Elijah, was while he 
was waiting upon God at the rock of Horeb ; (1 Kings 
xix. 9 — 14;) that is, according to the received chro- 
nology, four years after he had commenced his public 
labours, and ten years before his removal home to 
God. 

If we refer to the history of God's dealings with 
those who, in various ages of the world, have been pre- 
eminently his servants, we shall find that it has pleased 
the Divine Being, graciously to reward them with some 



ELIJAH'S TRANSLATION, 1S5 

special manifestation of his favour, accompanied with 
some clearer intimations of his future designs, after they 
have, in obedience to his command, displayed more than 
ordinary zeal for his glory, or have been exposed to 
imminent danger on account of their fidelity in his ser- 
vice. When Abram had generously rescued Lot, with- 
out regarding the consequences that r might have resulted 
to himself from the surrounding nations, the word of 
the Lord came unto him in a vision saying, " Fear not, 
Abram : I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
reward :" And then was it made known unto him that 
one who " should come forth out of his own bowels, 
should be his heir."" (Gen. xv. 1 — 6.) And when he 
had intentionally offered up his son Isaac, God was 
pleased to enlarge his promises, and to confirm them by 
an oath, saying, u Thy seed shall possess the gate of 
his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed : Because thou hast obeyed my voice." 
(Gen. xxii. 17, 18.) It was likewise just after Moses, 
the Lawgiver of Israel, had executed judgment, and 
by his holy zeal for God, in cutting off three thousand 
of the obstinately guilty, had saved the whole camp 
from destruction, that God gave unto him that pecu- 
liarly gracious manifestation, in which he proclaimed 
himself to be " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful 
and gracious." (See Exod. xxxii. to xxxiv. 1 — -8.) — Now 
Elijah, like Moses, had manifested his zeal for God in 
judicially cutting off the prophets of Baal, at the hazard 
of his own life, as is plain from the threatening of Jeze- 
bel : (1 Kings xix. 2 :) And as Elijah, immediately 
after that action, retired into the wilderness to Horeb, 
the very spot where Moses stood while Jehovah passed 
by, is it not highly probable, that God, " who reward- 

18 



126 SERMON IV. 

eth his servants according to their works,' 1 did there, on 
that occasion, reveal to Elijah, not only that he should 
not die by the hand of Jezebel, but that he should be 
translated to the kingdom of glory ? 

The prophet evidently undertook that journey, in 
obedience to the special direction of God. Were it 
necessary, this might be argued as probable, on the 
ground of his having been in every previous part of his 
life under the constant guidance of the providence and 
Spirit of God. If it were by God himself that he was 
formerly sent to Cherith, and afterwards to the widow 
at Zarephath, and at the end of the drought to Ahab, 
and to Mount Carmel ; may we not reasonably infer, 
that God now sent him into the wilderness to the rock 
Horeb ? Especially if we consider, that this journey 
was a most extraordinary undertaking, for which the 
prophet was wholly unprepared, and in the performing 
of which, being solitary and alone, and without the 
attendance of even his servant, he would be continually 
exposed to innumerable privations, and the utmost 
perils ? But we have more than inference on this matter. 
That God sent Elijah thither, is plain from the cir- 
cumstances of his having received a miraculous supply 
of food ; from the language of the angel when he 
appeared the second time, " Arise and eat, because the 
journey is too great for thee;" and from his having 
been miraculously strengthened to travel, and to remain 
without food, after that period, forty days and forty 
nights, even until he came to the mount of God. (1 
Kings xix. 5 — 8.) As God himself sent him to that 
sacred spot, at that time when his trials and dangers 
had come to a crisis, and as such remarkable and mira- 
culous circumstances attended his journeying, may we 



Elijah's translation. 187 

toot conclude with a moral certainty that God designed 
to afford him some extraordinary manifestation of his 
presence, and a revelation of his future designs of 
bestowing on his servant the singular reward of a trans- 
lation to Heaven ? 

As the [prophet undertook that journey by divine 
direction, so he seems likewise to have been specially 
prepared for a manifestation of God's presence, and for 
a revelation of his will. A large measure of divine 
influence rested upon him, tranquillizing all the powers 
of his soul. That he might enjoy communion with 
God, and uninterrupted meditation on his law, he had 
" left his servant at Beersheba, which belongeth to 
Judah," (for Jezebel's threatening and fury had caused 
him to retire beyond the limits of the kingdom of Israel,) 
while he " himself went a day's journey into the 
wilderness." (1 Kings xix. 2 — 4.) And while sitting 
there alone " under a juniper tree," he seems to have 
been in a blessed, holy, heavenly, happy frame of mind. 
He "requested for himself that he might die ;" he felt 
a longing " desire to depart and be with Christ, which 
was far better" than to remain on earth. He had no 
desire for a pompous funeral, nor for any persons who 
might be disposed to panegyrize his name, and to be 
present as eye-witnesses of his peaceful end ; but there 
in the wilderness, unseen, unknown, he desired to glide 
unto his Paradise, and enter without delay into the 
immediate presence of his God. " And he said, It is 
enough." Thh scripture phrase does not necessarily 
imply dissatisfaction, or discontent of mind ; on the 
contrary, it is often used to express the highest degree 
of satisfaction and enjoyment. So good old Israel, 
when he heard that Joseph was ruler over Egypt, with 



128 SERMON IV. 

heart-felt satisfaction exclaimed, " It is enough !" My 
highest wishes are satisfied ; I have not a desire remain- 
ing, save only to see him with mine eyes. " It is 
enough ; Joseph my son is yet alive : I will go and see 
him before I die." (Gen. xlv. 28.) In like manner the 
jorophet used the phrase. He was now " satisfied with 
favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord." He 
therefore cried out, " It is enough," I am filled on earth : 
" Now, O Lord, take away my life:" ^m np mrp nns : 
Now, O Jehovah, receive my soul : " Into thine hand 
I commit my spirit : Thou hast redeemed me O Lord 
God of truth." (Psalm xxxi. 5.) And overwhelmed 
with a sense of the divine goodness, as David was 
when he exclaimed, " What am I, O Lord ? and what 
my father's house ?," the prophet acknowledges " I am 
not better than my fathers ;" that is, I am the most 
unworthy of them all. So mightily did the grace of 
God humble his soul in that hour, while he was enabled 
to rejoice in hope of the glory of God, which glory he 
ardently longed to possess and enjoy. Were not those 
humbling, melting, peaceful influences of the Spirit of 
God vouchsafed to prepare him for what God was 
about to shew him at Horeb ? Accordingly, imme- 
diately after, when he had fallen asleep, he was directed 
to undertake the journey. 

Having been strengthened in body with food, and 
much more by " the Spirit's might in the inward man," 
he travelled on through the waste howling wilderness, 
his expectations no doubt being highly raised, and his 
soul deeply engaged with God, in prayer and holy medi- 
tation. But what must have been his feelings when 
he "came to the cave," and "lodged there," and 
remembered, This is the cleft of the rock where Moses 



Elijah's translation. 129 

stood, and here Jehovah passed by, and proclaimed to 
him The Name';—- the name that is above every name, 
" Jehovah Jesus; Jehovah, The Word, who bear- 
eth away iniquity, transgression, and sin." With what 
reverential awe, with what holy confidence, and, consi- 
dering that God had sent him there, with what elevated 
expectation would he worship in that r sacred place ! Nor 
was his expectation disappointed : For having " lodged 
there r) that night, in the morning, (See Exod. xxxiv. 2.) 
u behold ! the word of the Lord," or The Word Jeho- 
vah, "came to him, and he said unto him, — What 
doest thou here, Elijah ?" (1 Kings xix, 9.) The in- 
quiry in effect was, What is the gracious design of God 
in bringing thee to this place ? The prophet replied by 
avowing his zeal for God, and expressing the grief of 
his soul for the sin of Israel : " I have been very jeal- 
ous for the Lord God of Hosts : For the children of 
Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine 
altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword ; and I, I 
only am left ; and they seek my life to take it away." 
(1 Kings xix. 10.) As though he had said — " I have 
preached righteousness in the great congregation : Lo, 
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I 
have not hid thy righteousness within my heart ; I have 
declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation . I have not 
concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the 
great congregation. Withhold not thou thy tender 
mercies from me, O Lord : Let thy loving kindness and 
thy truth continually preserve me." (Psalm xl. 9—11.) 
After this reply, The Eternal Word said unto him, 
" Go forth, and stand upon the Mount before the 
Lord." The prophet went forth : " And, behold, the 
Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the 



130 SERMON IV. 

mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the 
Lord ; but the Lord was not in the wind : And after 
the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the 
earthquake : And after the earthquake, a fire ; but the 
Lord was not in the fire.'''' (1 Kings xix. 11, 12.) — The 
Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in 
the fire ; that is, the voice of the Lord was not in them ; 
it was not heard from the midst of the tempest and 
the storm : For that the Lord himself was in them, 
is manifest from their having been occasioned by his 
" passing by." Those awful tokens of the divine pre- 
sence may have been designed, partly to fill the mind 
of the prophet with a still deeper reverence of God; 
and partly to give an emblem of his own translation ; — 
to shew him that by " a whirlwind" he should be car- 
ried up into heaven ; and that in " a chariot of fire" 
he should ascend triumphantly to glory. Nor is it im- 
probable that the mighty sweep of the whirlwind was 
accompanied by a shaking of the earth, at the period of 
his translation. — But now at the mountain of God, after 
the wind, and the earthquake, and the fire were past, 
there followed "a still small voice :" njn noon top: — A 
voice that could only be heard in the deepest silence ; 
and which then did not continue long ; a small, slender 
sound, dying gently away. — This I apprehend was the 
moment when God revealed to the prophet his will con- 
cerning his translation. Did not the " -still small 
voice" of the Eternal Word, in effect, declare?, " Elijah ! 
thou shall not die, as those hasl requested ; (see ver. iv;) 
but where I am, there shall my servant be also." — 
Amazed at so wonderful a revelation of God's sovereign, 
electing, and distinguishing grace, " it came to pass 
5?o^3 as soon as he heard he wrapped his face in his 



Elijah's translation. 131 

mantle," and prostrating himself on the earth, with the 
most profound humility he adored and worshipped the 
Lord his God. When the manifestation of Jehovah's 
power and presence was wholly past, and the still small 
voice was heard no more, the prophet seems to have 
returned again to the cave ; and after some time spent 
in meditation and prayer, perhaps r on the morning of 
the following day, "he went forth' ' a second time, and 
" stood in the entering in of the cave." (1 Kings xix. 
13.) But no further special manifestation was granted 
unto him. " The word Jehovah" did not come to him 
again ; but, at this time, only " a voice came unto him" 
(compare 9th and 13th verse) and said, " What doest 
thou here, Elijah ?," intimating that the gracious design 
for which God had brought him to that place had 
been answered, and that he might return. Elijah 
having replied as before, and still continuing to mourn 
the destitute state of Israel, because the prophets of the 
Lord had been slain, he was directed to depart, and, on 
his way, to anoint two men to be future Kings, who 
should be instruments in the hand of God of " aven^- 
ing the blood of his servants;" — Hazael to be King 
over Syria, and " Jehu the Son of Nimshi to be king 
over Israel." (1 Kings xix. 15.) After that, he was 
commanded to anoint Elisha to the prophetic office. 
And the tenor of his commission concerning Elisha, 
is expressed in very striking and remarkable words : — 
" Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, shalt 
thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.'''' This last 
expression clearly evinces that Elijah now certainly knew 
of his removal ; and after this period he seems to have 
been continued on earth, chiefly to prepare Elisha to 
succeed him in that high office to which he had been 



132 SERMON IV. 

called, and for the duties of which he had been set apart 
by the holy anointing oil of God. 

Upon the whole then we may perhaps rationally con- 
clude, from what has been advanced, in the general 
tenor of the history, that as Elijah knew of his trans- 
lation long before that event occurred, so to make him 
acquainted with it, and fully to prepare him for so 
honourable, exalted, and distinguished a privilege, was 
the special design which God had in view, in send- 
ing him to the rock of the mountain Horeb, and in 
graciously meeting with him there :* " For there the 
Lord commanded the blessing, life for evermore."" 
(Psalm cxxxiii. 3.) 

% In what manner the saint received his reward — 
the commanded blessing, is the last thing that remains 
to be considered. In 2 Kings ii. 1., we read, " And it 
came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into 
heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha 
from Gilgal." Hence it appears that God had further 
revealed to Elijah, either at Horeb, or at a subsequent 
period, the time, the day of his removal from earth to 
heaven : And when that time had arrived, he directed 
him to the place where he willed his removal to be 
accomplished. The place was on the Eastern side of 
Jordan, most likely one of the mountains, since it seems 
more probable that a cloud would bear him away from a 
mountain, than take him up from a valley. Thus our 

* It may be objected, the prophet still complained, " They seek mylife, 
to take it away." — That, however, was not the language of fear, the prophet 
only related the fact. And though God had revealed to him, that he 
should be translated, it was still his duty to use natural means for pre- 
serving his life ; for God did not engage to make his body invulne- 
rable to the sword. Hence Elijah's caution : (2 Kings i. 4.) " He de- 
parted." 



Elijah's translation. 13S 

Saviour, when about to ascend on high, went up to the 
mountain called Olivet ; and from thence did he ascend 
until a cloud received him out of his disciples' sighL 
And what if the prophet were taken up from Mount 
Nebo, where Moses died at the word of the Lord ! 

The memorable day having arrived, Elijah and Elisha 
went early in the morning to Gilgal, r the prophet having 
to pass through Bethel and Jericho, to visit the schools 
of the sons of the prophets, to give those youths his 
final instructions, and his parting benediction. When 
they came to Gilgal, " Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry 
here, I pray thee ; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel." 1 '' 
(2 Kings ii. 2.) The request was repeated at Bethel, 
and at Jericho. Elisha's steady attachment to Elijah, 
and his zeal for the glory of the God of Israel, had been 
demonstrated long before this period ; by his forsaking 
his calling the same day Elijah " cast his mantle upon 
him ;" (1 Kings xix. 19 — 21 ;) and by his remaining 
with the prophet up to that hour. The request, there- 
fore, of Elijah was not designed to try Elisha's stead- 
fastness ; for if that had been at all doubtful, the pro- 
phet must have felt his mind considerably distressed, at 
the very time he was going to enter on his reward* 
That request, so earnestly repeated, proceeded from 
Elijah's deep and unfeigned humility. He who could 
have joyfully ceased from his labours under a juniper 
tree in a wilderness, would have preferred to have no 
one an eye-witness to the singular honour which God 
was about to bestow upon him : He wished to receive 
his reward alone, rather than in the presence of even his 
beloved Elisha. For this reason, he did not tell him 
why the Lord had sent him beyond Jordan. With 
his intended successor he might have occasionally con- 



134 SERMON IV. 

versed on the subject of his future translation, that he! 
might be prepared to fill his place, as soon as he should 
know immediately from God, or have reason in his own 
mind to conclude, that that event was near its accom- 
plishment ; and the transactions which took place at 
Horeb, between himself and God alone, he probably 
related to Elisha, through whom they have been trans- 
mitted to us in the sacred records. But the time of his 
removal he seems to have studiously concealed from 
Elisha, up to the very day when his translation occurred. 
God, however, revealed it to Elisha ; for which reason, 
he could not bring himself to comply with the request 
of his venerated father, by tarrying at Gilgal, or at 
Bethel, or at Jericho : " As the Lord liveth, and as 
thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. ,, (2 Kings ii 
2, 4, 6.) 

That Elijah should be translated that day, was also 
revealed to the sons of the prophets at each of those 
places ; God designing, by communicating that know- 
ledge to their minds, to dispose them to pay the utmost 
attention to Elijah's last charge, that they might all 
receive such lasting good as would fit them for eminent 
usefulness, when called to the service of the sanctuary. 
Hence they came to Elisha with the eager inquiry, 
" Knowest thou that Jehovah will take away thy master 
from thy head to-day ?"" — Elisha being well acquainted 
with the mind of the prophet, and of his aversion to 
ostentation, and even to a mention of his labours, or 
reward, when a regard for God's honour did not call for 
it, gave unto the sons of the prophets successively this 
prudential answer, — " Yea, I know it ; hold ye your 
peace." (2 Kings ii. 3, 5.) 

And now the prophet's public work was done. Elijah 



Elijah's translation. 135 

and Elisha departed from Jericho ; " and they two 
went on" till they came to Jordan. (2 Kings ii. 6, 7.) 
Here for some moments they stood. Then " Elijah 
took off his mantle" — unclothing as it were his mortal 
body, — and, it seems, put it on no more, that in a moment 
he might drop it on Elisha—" and, wrapping the mantle 
together, he smote the waters, and they were divided 
hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry 
ground." (£ Kings, ii. 8.) 

After they had passed the Jordan, Elijah, finding 
that he could no longer conceal from Elisha, that the 
time of his departure was at hand, said unto him, " Ask 
what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from 
thee." O what a privilege to have an interest in the 
last supplications of so eminent a saint of God ! — Elisha 
replied, " I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit 
be upon me." Or rather the words — >b« "jrrm o'O'ffi— -a w-'m 
should be rendered. " Let a double portion, I pray 
thee, with thy Spirit , be upon me." No one surely can 
suppose, that Elisha desired to be vastly superior to 
Elijah in prophetic eminence. This notion is contrary 
to that modesty which belonged to Elisha on such an 
occasion, and to those exalted ideas of Elijah's character 
which he had long entertained. But he asks, as Elijah's 
first-born, for a " double portion" (See Deut. xxi. 17,) 
of those blessings, and ordinary gifts, for which he had 
that day heard Elijah plead with God on behalf of the 
sons of the prophets ; with that extraordinary unction 
which was necessary to enable him to become Elijah's 
successor, and like him to fill the prophetic office to the 
glory of God. Elisha trembled at the awful respon- 
sibility of the office that was about to devolve upon 
him ; and though he had had many instructions and 



J36 SEltMON IV. 

considerable preparation for it, yet he deeply felt his 
need of more than ordinary grace ; — his need of the 
same Spirit to rest upon him, by whose power and grace 
Elijah had been enabled to prove faithful. Therefore 
he spake with earnestness of soul — " I pray thee, let a 
double portion, with thy Spirit, be given unto me."" 

Elijah replied, " Thou hast asked a hard thing." 
This certainly seems a singular reply, after the unlimited 
permission the prophet had given Elisha, " Ask what I 
shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee." 
But the original words, Vw*w n^pn, are capable of a more 
literal translation : — " Thou hast made a difficulty to 
ask," or in asking. The verb rvrcpn shews that the diffi- 
culty lay with Elisha, and seems to intimate, what 
indeed does not appear in the reading of his brief 
request, but might have been evident in the manner 
of his uttering it, that he doubted whether so great a 
blessing as Elijahs spirit would be given to rest upon 
him. Elijah, perceiving his doubts, shewed him that 
the reception of so great a blessing depended on the 
degree of his faith ; that " according to his faith ; t 
should be done unto him." This was the all-important 
condition. " If," says he, " thou see me taken from 
thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall not be 
so/ 7 (2 Kings ii. 10.) That is, If, on this solemn occa- 
sion, by a steady, silent, constant exercise of that " faith 
which is the substance of things hoped for, and the 
evidence of things not seen," thou waitest on God 
with a full expectation of being thus endued with 
power from on high, thy request shall be granted, of 
which this shall be the outward token, — Thou shalt see, 
with thy bodily eyes, the manner and circumstances of 
my removal from thee. Elisha's heart must have been 



]Elijah\s translation. 137 

deeply affected with a reply, the spirit of which con- 
veyed so much seasonable admonition and instruction 
to his mind. That conversation passed just on the 
other side of Jordan, when they had crossed the parted 
flood. 

"And it came to pass as they still went on, and 
talked." I must be excused once more for referring to 
the original ; it reads so significantly here, that, without 
introducing it, I cannot do my best to explain the mind 
of the Spirit in this passage. It is as follows ; im yfm 
n^bn norr vn: " And it came to pass, they were going on. 
he went on, and he spake :" — that is, as they were jour- 
neying with considerable rapidity, Elijah quickened his 
step still more, and hastened on the way, for he longed 
to be with God. And as they quickened their pace, he, 
Elijah, spoke: His word now "distilled as the dew." 
Elisha was a silent learner, receiving, with peculiar emo- 
tions of soul, the last solemn advice and instructions 
from his venerable father ; not forgetting, however, to 
raise his heart in prayer for that faith, on the exercise of 
which, at the eventful moment, so much of his future 
happiness and usefulness depended. The scene must 
have been affecting beyond what imagination can con- 
ceive. And " behold," suddenly, while Elijah was yet 
speaking, or had scarcely ended, " there appeared a 
chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both 
asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into hea- 
ven." (2 Kings ii. 11.) — Clouds hastened on by wind, 
in which attendant angels rode, suddenly assumed the 
triumphant and majestic appearance of " a chariot of 
fire, and horses of fire," and bore the prophet from the 
presence of Elisha, to the presence of Elisha's God. But 
*" Elisha saw," says the text. The translation was sud- 

K 



138 SERMON IV. 

den; but, his faith being in lively exercise, he was fa- 
voured with a sight of it. " And he cried ;" nsy-Q "cried 
out aloud" in deep amazement and concern — with rapid- 
ity — in broken sentences, " My Father ! My Father! 
Chariot of Israel ! and his horsemen !" — It is manifest, 
the prophet saw other beings beside Elijah. He saw 
the chariot of the God of Israel ; and the angels, his 
ministering spirits, guiding his father's ascent, and at- 
tending him in his triumphant removal to glory. — " But 
he saw him no more." — Elijah's mantle fell : He dropt 
it, the moment he was taken away : And when with it 
Elisha divided Jordan, the sons of the prophets acknow- 
ledged Elisha, not as Elijah's superior, as having a 
double portion of his spirit ; but as his successor, saying, 
" The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha." (2 Kings 
ii. 15.) As for Elijah, the moment his mantle fell he 
was " changed," the " corruptible putting on incor- 
ruption, and the mortal putting on immortality ; he was 
clothed upon with the house which is from heaven, that 
mortality might be swallowed up of life." 

In this manner was Elijah, that eminent saint of the 
Most High, rewarded; and in a most literal sense did 
he experience the truth of the Redeemer's declaration — 
" He that will lose his life for my sake shall find it." 
And while " the bloody and deceitful" priests of Baal, 
did not "live out half their days;" and while Ahab 
perished in battle, and the dogs licked his blood as his 
chariot was washed in the pool at Samaria ; and while 
Jezebel met with a violent death, and the dogs devoured 
her carcase also; — God both preserved the life of Elijah 
in the midst of the most imminent and constant dangers, 
and at the last rewarded him with a most signally " tri- 
umphant and abundant entrance into the everlasting 
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."-- 



Elijah's translation. 139 

" Verily there is a reward for the righteous : Verily he 
is a God that judgeth in the earth.' 1 (Psalm lviii. 11.) 

In concluding this subject, of which we have taken so 
extensive a view, we shall only dwell a few moments on 
two leading observations, that arise oup of what has been 
advanced : 

1. The translation of Elijah was not only to him a 
distinguished reward, but it was an event full of lasting 
instruction to all Israel. It served to confirm the minds 
of the people in the belief of a future state ; and to give 
them clearer views of the doctrines of the immortality of 
the soul, and of the future resurrection and immortality 
of the body. These glorious truths must have been well 
nigh effaced from the heart, by a prevailing idolatrous 
worship ; for idolatry is the parent of darkness : Where 
idolatry extends, there " darkness covers the land, and 
gross darkness the people." Elijah's translation was de- 
signed to dispel that darkness, and there can be no doubt 
but that, in many individuals, this end was fully an- 
swered. It served also to raise, in the estimation of the 
people, the prophetic character and office, at a period 
when every method was used by ungodly rulers, and 
wicked priests, to bring them into contempt. And thus 
it gave a confirmation to all those important truths which 
Elijah had delivered in his ministrations amongst the 
Israelites ; and prepared them to receive with the greater 
reverence and attention the admonitions of his successor 
Elisha. Notwithstanding the national wickedness of the 
ten tribes continued to increase, until the Lord sent them 
into a captivity from which they have never returned ; 
yet may we reasonably suppose, that the instructive pro- 
vidence was not useless to all ; — nor indeed to any, for 

K 2 



140 SKltMON IV. 

it served to leave all more fully " without excuse," 
while it might have been the means of bringing many 
individuals to repentance, and to an acknowledging of 
the truth, that they might be saved. In fine, the his- 
tory of Elijah, contrasted with the history of his idola- 
trous and bloody persecutors, proclaimed to all Israel, in 
language never to be forgotten, these words of the Eter- 
nally Righteous Jehovah : — " Them that honour me, I 
will honour ; but they that despise me, shall be lightly 
esteemed." (1 Sam. ii. 30.) 

% These things are also written for our example, and 
the Sacred Record has been preserved for our instruc- 
tion. We see the amazing long-suffering of God towards 
sinners. Israel had become corrupt and forsaken the 
Lord. They began to forsake him by worldly, that is, 
by sinful policy. Jeroboam made them golden calves, 
to prevent them from worshipping Jehovah at his own 
Sacred Temple in Jerusalem. This sin caused their 
ruin. But how gracious was God toward them ! He 
might have left them to their iniquities ; he might have 
pronounced at once — " Ephraim is joined to idols, let 
him alone." But that awful sentence proceeded not from 
his lips, till every method of detaching them from their 
idols had been used in vain. By forsaking the temple, 
they neglected the priests and Levites, who were the or- 
dinary teachers of religion ; but God, in the most un- 
bounded compassion, raised them up two of the most 
extraordinary men that ever lived, and such as could not 
be equalled in Judah. Where but in guilty and idola- 
trous Israel, could first an Elijah and then an Elisha be 
found ? What a powerful demonstration 'that " God is 
long-suffering to-us-ward, not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance P Let a 
recollection of this goodness of God to Israel, lead us to 



Elijah's translation. 141 

repentance ; but let us beware of hardening our hearts, 
lest we fall after the same example of unbelief ! 

What reason have we to be thankful for a stated and 
regularly established ministry of the word. This is a 
greater blessing, than to be favoured occasionally with the 
teaching of even apostles and prophets. Judea, with the 
priests every where dispersed amongst the people, and 
the synagogues of God numerous in the land, where the 
law was read, was far less sinful and guilty than idola- 
trous Israel, with men of the greatest holiness and zeal, 
who were mighty both in word and in deed. To enjoy 
the privilege of sitting under a regular ministry, in the 
manner we do, is one of the greatest blessings of heaven. 
How ought we to adore God for the superior light of 
the gospel dispensation ! Here "life and immortality 
are brought to light." Here we read, not only of the 
translation of an Elijah from earth to heaven, but of 
the resurrection of the Redeemer from the dead. When he 
had made atonement for our sins by the blood of his cross ; 
when he had spoiled principalities and powers, and made 
a show of them openly ; and when he ascended up on 
high, he received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, 
that the Lord God might dwell amongst them. Yea, 
he received the gift of the Holy Ghost for us ; that by 
his divine and gracious influences we might be enlight- 
ened, convinced, converted, justified, and sanctified, and 
be finally glorified in the presence of God. Let us then 
seek for a present salvation, through the merits of the 
Redeemer, by the power of the Spirit, that we may 
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Finally : All those who are now saved by grace, may 
behold in Elijah's translation an emblem of their own 
final glory. It is true, we must die ; but our souls shall 

k 3 



142 SERMON IV. 

be received into Abraham's bosom, and our flesh shall 
rest in hope. Precious, in the sight of the Lord, is the 
death of his saints. Their very dust is precious in his 
sight. Of this we have a fine illustration in the case of 
Elisha. Elisha died and was buried. But, some months 
afterwards, when his sepulchre was opened, and a corpse 
lowered into his grave, no sooner did the corpse touch 
the bones of Elisha, then the " dead man revived, and 
stood up upon his feet." (2 Kings, xiii. 20, 21.) What 
was the meaning of this extraordinary miracle ? Was it 
not as though the Redeemer had said — " A saint whose 
death is precious in my sight lies buried there. Ens/la's 
'very dust is as precious and honourable in my sight* as 
Elijah' *s body that is glorified in my kingdom ; for here- 
after that dust shall be raised, and glorified also. It is 
sown in corruption, it shall be raised in incorruption : 
It is sown in dishonour, it shall be raised in glory : It is 
sown in weakness, it shall be raised in power : It is sown 
a natural body, it shall be raised a spiritual body : — It 
shall be fashioned — not like Elijah's — but like my own glo- 
rious body, according to the working of my mighty power. 

Let us then smile at death, and triumph over the 
grave. We shall have a resurrection, if we have not a 
translation. Elijah was translated alone ; but we shall 
be raised with myriads who have slept in Jesus : And 
instead of " horses of fire and a chariot of fire" sent to 
convey us home, the " Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God ;" and with all the living saints, 
" we shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the 
air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 
iv. 16, 17.) 

May we all be partakers of that glory, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen ! 



SERMON V. 
ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 

r 



The Pleasures of Sin for a Season. — Heb. xL 25. 

Would we form a just estimate of the pleasures of 
religion, we must carry our thoughts into eternity. 
" Pure and undefined religion" not only contains within 
itself a source of lasting enjoyment on earth, it also leads 
us ultimately into the immediate presence of God, where 
" there is fulness of joy," and exalts us to " his right 
hand, where there are pleasures for evermore." 

But when we reflect on " the pleasures of sin," we 
must confine our thoughts within narrower limits : They 
end with the momentary life of man ; they are only 
" for a season." 

To describe the pleasures of sin, at first view appears 
an exceedingly difficult task. The very phrase seems 
to stand opposed to the general tenor of holy writ, and 
to be contrary to the universal experience of mankind. 
Of the miseries produced by sin we have heard much ; 
those miseries we have often felt, and acknowledged, 
and lamented. (e By one man sin entered into the 
world." " Man is born to trouble." " Death hath 
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." — Where 
then shall we look for the pleasures of sin ? 



144 SERMON T. 

The context will afford an easy illustration of so- 
strange an expression : " By faith Moses when he was 
come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh? s 
daughter ; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the 
people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a 
season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches 
than the treasures of Egypt : For he had respect unto 
the recompence of the reward.'" — By " the pleasures of 
sin,'" we. perceive, the apostle meant those voluptuous and 
sensual delights which are agreeable to the desires of men 
in a carnal, unregenerate state; the pleasures which 
might be enjoyed in the court of Egypt, and which 
are too common in the courts of princes of every 
nation. 

But it is not in courts only, and in the mansions of 
the great, that these pleasures are pursued with avidity ; 
we daily observe a similar conduct in those who hold a 
middle station in society, and in those who are poor, — 
though perhaps in an inferior degree. Practical atheism 
every where abounds. " They are all gone out of the 
way." All are seeking happiness out of God. Every 
one pursues the phantom of his own imagination ; and 
the summit of his wishes is, to be left alone, peacefully 
to the enjoyment of the pleasures of sin. The justness 
of this charge I hope to establish, in such a manner as 
shall bring home the word with power to your con- 
sciences, while I proceed 

I. To enumerate the Pleasures of Sin : 

II. To prove that the pleasures so enumerated are y 
in reality, sinful pleasures : And, 

III. To point out the shortness of their duration. 

I. We are to enumerate the Pleasures of Sin. 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 145 

1. I begin with the pleasures of Worldly Amuse- 
ments. — Behold yon thickening throng crowding along 
the road, and hastening to the distant plain ! Whither 
are they going ? For what purpose are they collecting 
together ? Why, to spend some gay hours in witness- 
ing the speed of horses, and the cruelty of man. Noble 
entertainment for an immortal mind d O ye angels of 
light ! do ye not envy us our sublime pleasures on 
earth ? — See that select company, all cheerful and gay, 
met together to spend a few social hours in each other's 
society. While that busy member, the tongue, talks of 
every thing but wisdom ; how eager, how deeply intent 
they are, on the business of throwing down and taking 
up again a few spotted cards, that were first invented to 
please an idiot king ! — Heboid that youthful party, con- 
vened to spend the evening in dancing till the midnight 
hour : What pleasure do they appear to feel in each 
other's presence ! What joy irradiates every counte- 
nance ! How do they strive to manifest " the warm 
efforts of the friendly heart, anxious to please !■" Every 
desire seems to be satisfied, one only excepted, which 
occasionally arises, " O that these pleasures would 
longer last, or oftener return !" — Next observe those 
young men, whose friendship was formed in childhood, 
and whose affectionate attachment has increased by some 
years' acquaintance, and by many reciprocal acts of 
kindness. They are going to the ale-house, or to the 
tavern ; those haunts of wickedness, and nurseries of 
every vice. At first, perhaps, they only design to learn 
the news of the day, and mutually agree that they will 
be on their guard against all bad habits, and every kind 
of immorality. But evil steals upon them gradually 
and imperceptibly : They form new acquaintances, enter 



.1 1 



146 



SERMON V. 



into new connections, and, still in the pursuit of pleasure, 
fall into practices which deeply wound their domestic 
comfort, injure their character, and stain the reputation 
of their friends. At length they become rivetted to the 
places, to which at the outset they only resorted to 
spend the evening, and can never be happy but when 
there. 

The scene, my brethren, is endlessly diversified; so 
numerous are the amusements invented by the ingenuity 
of man to hill time, and to make him happy by banish- 
ing from his mind a recollection of his own mortality : 
" Lo, this one thing only have I found, that God made 
man upright, but they have sought out many inven- 
tions." 

2. We next bring forth to view, the pleasures of 
Intemperance. — By the pleasures of intemperance, 
I mean that delight which men take in eating and 
drinking to excess. The intemperate man has a two- 
fold pleasure ; one in prospect, when he feeds his 
imagination with the anticipation of that delight he 
expects to find at the festal board ; and the other in 
enjoyment, when he sits down to partake of those exqui- 
site dainties with which the table groans. It is indeed 
almost an abuse of words to call his feelings "happiness;*" 
and were it not a fact, that too many make " their belly 
their god," and say to themselves like one of old, " Soul, 
thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine 
ease, eat, drink, and be merry," the term should never 
be so applied. They have returned in heart to the 
ancient superstitions of the Egyptians ; for while they 
would scorn to bow the knee to an idol, their grovelling 
souls stoop lower still; and, slaves to appetite, they 
worship the food they eat. Hence it is that, in the 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 147 

early part of the day, they feel dejection of mind, and 
complain of lowness of spirits ; and the melancholy 
hangs about them until they take the cheering glass, 
and banish dull care from their minds. And now they 
seem to be happy ! The spirits are enlivened ; the 
gloom has wholly disappeared ; anxieties are lost in 
forgetfulness ; reason is dethroned, K)r the exercise of 
that faculty is in part suspended ; and the countenance 
appears cheerful and glad, as though sorrow had never 
been known in the heart at all. Such are the pleasures 
of intemperance ! and they are generally accompanied 
with 

3. The pleasures of Mirth. — " Go to now, I will 
prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure." 
(Eccles. ii. 1.) Music'c charms are called for, to keep 
composed the restless passions of the soul. " The harp, 
and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their 
feasts." (Isaiah v. 12.) The powers of harmony are 
tried. The soft sound of melody, and the loud chorus 
that rends the air, alternately excite delightful feelings 
in the mind. Some delight in singing the merry song, 
of which the mighty achievements of men called "heroes" 
are the leading theme. The heroes, joined with Bacchus, 
are their gods. Alas ! some stoop lower, and while 
" wine inflames them," appear to be possessed of a legion 
of unclean spirits ; and their " excess of wine" is at- 
tended with " lasciviousness, lusts, revellings, banquet- 
ings, and abominable idolatries." (1 Peter iv. 3.) — There 
are various degrees of excesses, but all pretend to be 
happy in them. They are throwing off restraint ; and 
" walking in the imagination of their own heart," that 
they may "bless themselves," and take their fill of 
pleasure. Hear the loud laughter bursting forth from 



148 SERMON V. 

every quarter, and oft-times repeated, and say, Are not 
the pleasures of mirth worthy of being desired ? Why 
should a man make himself a mope,&\\ his days ? Why 
should the poor melancholy wretch be continually prying 
into his Bible, till he becomes stupid and unfit for 
society, and capable of attending to nothing but his 
prayers ? — Let fools attend to nothing else but religion. 
Religion is very well in its place ; but Solomon tells us, 
" There's a time for all things." We will enjoy life 
while we have it ; and take no thought for to-morrow. 
Come : " Let us eat, and drink, for to-morrow we 
die." — Such sentiments appear very rational to the 
world ; and he who holds them, is sure to gain the 
esteem of the world. To his other enjoyments he may 
then add, 

4. The pleasures of Human Applause. Flattery is 
pleasing to human nature ; and nothing sooner awakens 
the wrath of an unconverted man than reproach. And 
especially he has an aversion to being thought " righte- 
ous over much.' 1 He has no fixed principles by which 
his conduct is regulated, but with much urbanity and 
good nature he endeavours to conform to custom, in 
every society and in every place ; and if, in any instance, 
scruples of conscience make him dissent from custom, 
he is careful so to contrive it, and by many excuses so 
to cover the real cause of his dissent, that no one may 
have the least suspicion of his having too much religion. 
Thus while he is swimming with the stream, the stream 
glides smoothly along; and throughout life he passes 
for an agreeable, honest, well-meaning man. He has 
the good-will of his neighbours. Every one commends 
him. Numerous friends strive to help him forward in 
life; and he enjoys ease, comfort, and prosperity. The 






ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 149 

reproach he shunned never comes upon him ; he dies 
as he lived, applauded and honoured of men ; and his 
virtues are inscribed on the monumental stone which 
covers him in the grave. How agreeable is all this to 
the natural feelings of the human mind ! Could it be 
obtained and enjoyed without the sacrifice of any 
Christian principle, who would not desire it ? But that 
applause of man which comes by shunning the reproach 
of Christ, and which is only secured by walking " ac- 
cording to the course of this world," must be numbered 
amongst the pleasures of sin. 

5. There are the pleasures also of Self-esteem. — 
If man cannot always, after all his care, obtain honour 
from his fellow-men, he can at least obtain it from him- 
self. If all the world be blind to the excellencies that 
adorn his character, to himself they may appear in the 
most brilliant colours ; and cause him to feel his own 
importance in the scale of society. Some who have but 
little merit of their own, highly value themselves on 
account of the acknowledged worth of their ancestors, 
from whom they are descended. Others esteem them- 
selves because of their affluence, the large estate which 
they have acquired, and the wealth they are enabled to 
display. One of their highest pleasures consists in 
secretly saying to their own hearts, if not outwardly to 
others : " This noble mansion is mine ; and those fields 
and gardens are my inheritance." Some value them- 
selves highly on account of their beauty ; others because 
of their bodily strength, or stature ; and not a few 
because of the splendour of their garments, and the 
profusion of costly ornaments which their circumstances 
enable them to wear. No matter how trifling the thing 
which produces delight ; no one can deny, that a vain 



150 SERMON V. 

mind finds a kind of pleasure in its vanity. The vain 
covet the universal and indiscriminate esteem of men ; 
and always esteem themselves. 

The pleasures then of which we have now spoken, 
are the pleasures described in the text. That they are 
pleasures, that there is enjoyment to be found in some 
or all of them, you are ready to admit : But, that they 
are all the pleasures of sin, you are disposed to deny, 
since some of them at least are quite harmless ; espe- 
cially the amusements described, and ought rather to be 
called innocent recreations. Here we join issue. I am 
in the next place, 

II. To prove that the pleasures now enumerated are 
all the pleasures of sin. 

They are sinful ; because they have no reference to 
God's glory ; because they are contrary to God's word ; 
and because they unfit us for the enjoyment of God in 
heaven. — If I make good these three arguments, the 
point I wish to prove must be clearly established ; and, 
by whatever name those pleasures may be called by 
those who love them, it will be demonstrated that they 
are in reality the pleasures of sin. 

1 . They have no reference to God's glory. 

I take it for granted that you all allow, that God's 
glory is the end for which man was created. Wherefore 
did God originally make man in his own image, and 
communicate to him his own immortality, and endue 
him with such vast and noble faculties, and exalt him to so 
much honour and dignity, — but that he might shadow 
forth his Maker's perfections, in the constant purity 
and holiness of all his actions? God made the world 
for man, as well as to display his own creative glory : 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 151 

But man he made for himself alone. The world was 
designed to be the abode of man, and man the abode of 
God : The purposes of creation and redemption are the 
same. When man was fallen by his own iniquity, the 
Lord " laid help upon one who is mighty to save." 
" He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all:" We are redeemed by the blood of Christ. But 
wherefore redeemed ? " That henceforth we should not 
live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us, and 
rose again," " Ye are not your own ; ye are bought with 
a price : Therefore glorify God in your body and in your 
spirit which are God's," — that is, to the uttermost, with 
all your ransomed powers. And as to the instances in which 
this is our duty, and our privilege, and our happiness, 
we are thus directed by St. Paul, — " Whether ye eat or 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 
His glory, therefore, is to be the end, not only of our 
religious actions, but of our common actions and pur- 
suits throughout the whole tenor of our life ; by which 
means our common actions would become sacred, and 
our every deed rewardable in eternity ; and then would 
the prayer we have so often offered up be fully answered, 
" Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." But 
are you doing the will of God on earth in following the 
pleasures of the world ? Do any of those amusements 
that have been mentioned, which you call u harmless and 
innocent," promote the glory of God ? Or do they pro- 
mote dissipation of mind, and thus awfully increase the 
natural atheism of the heart ? Which of them will you 
select as an instance of their rational utility, in enabling 
you to answer the great purposes of creation and 
redemption ? Is it the theatre, the ball, the masquerade, 
the race-ground, or the drunkard's song? Can you 



152 SERMON V. 

indeed while pursuing those " innocent 
solemnly appeal to God and say ?, — " Lord, thou 
knowest all things, thou knowest that I am not now 
seeking my own will, but thy glory. Thou knowest 
that I am now striving to become thy disciple, by deny- 
ing myself, and taking up my cross that I may follow 
thee. Thou knowest that I am eagerly performing my 
baptismal vow, in which I promised to renounce the 
pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the 
sinful desires of the flesh." Can you thus appeal to 
to God, O ye lovers of pleasure, in the midst of any one 
of your amusements ? You dare not. You cannot say, 
" God made me thus to live ;" or, that " I might enjoy 
such a pleasure, of which I am particularly fond, was 
the great end for which Christ died upon the cross." 
What ! Did he bathe the earth with his bloody sweat in 
the garden of Gethsemane, did he exclaim in the deepest 
anguish of soul on the cross at Calvary — Eli, Eli, 
lama sabacthani, " My God ! My God ! why hast thou 
forsaken me !" that he might purchase for you the 
privilege of enjoying worldly pleasures, trifles and 
vanities ? Did he deny himself of all things, that you 
might be intemperate ? Was he " a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief," that you might indulge in the 
mirth and laughter of fools ? Was he " the Lamb of 
God without spot ;" " holy, harmless, undefined, and 
separate from sinners," that you might have " eyes full 
of adultery," and feet running to do evil? Was he 
f a worm and no man," a " very scorn of men," that 

you might thirst for human applause? Ah! My 

brethren, by those pleasures which you call " innocent'"' 
you have been the murderers of the Lord's Christ I You 
have acted the part of Judas a hundred times; and 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. lOh 

have been " the betrayers" as well as the murderers of 
the Son of God. Behold! In his house you say, " Hail 
Master ! and kiss him ;" and anon turning your backs 
upon him, and following your Mohamedan pleasures, 
you " deny the Lord that bought you, that you may 
bring upon yourselves swift destruction;" — " a damna- 
tion that lingereth not," All the mockeries and insults 
of the Jews towards Christ, when he stood at the bar of 
Pilate, have been repeated by you times innumerable : 
You who profess to glory in the name of " Christian !" 
Behold ! Throughout the week you are running after 
the pleasures of the world, entirely forgetting Christ, 
and neglecting his salvation ; and yet, on the Sabbath, — 
when indeed that day is not also made a day of plea- 
sure, — you appear in his sanctuary, and cry before him, 
" Lord, have mercy upon us ! Christ, have mercy upon 
us !" This insulting address, from hearts that never 
felt their need of mercy, is more shocking than that of 
the Jews. They only derided him as man, saying, 
" Hail, King of the Jews !" But you deride him by 
the sacred names of " Lord and Christ ! !" Why call 
him " Lord," if you will not be governed by him ? 
Why acknowledge him as " the Messiah," if you oppose 
the end for which he was sent, namely, u that he might 
deliver you from this present evil world, according to 
the will of God ?" Why delude yourselves with the 
notion, that you are Christians, when you love those 
pleasures which not only do not promote the glory of 
God, but which are directly opposed to his glory, seeing 
they pervert the end for which man was created and 
redeemed ? — The fact is undeniable, those pleasures do 
not glorify God; therefore they are the pleasures of 
sin. 

L 



154 SERMON V. 

S. They are contrary to the word of God. 

Hear the word of the Lord, ye lovers of worldly 
amusements ! That word declares concerning certain 
ancient pleasure-takers, that, when they had departed 
most awfully from God, a natural consequence of that 
departure from him was, — " the people sat down to eat 
and to drink, and rose up to play." (Exod. xxxii. 6.) 
" They that live in pleasure," says St. Paul, u are dead 
while they live ;" (1 Tim. v. 6 ;) and when he is enu- 
merating sinners of the worst class, he does not forget 
to mention those who are lovers of pleasures more than 
lovers of God." (2 Tim. iii. 4.) The pleasures of this 
life choke the good seed of the word when it is sown, so 
that it cannot bring forth fruit unto perfection. (Luke viii. 
14.) " Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not 
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? 
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the 
enemy of God." (James iv ? 4.) 

Hear this, ye lovers of intemperance and riot ! " It 
shall come to pass, if any man who heareth the words 
of the curse," which Jehovah hath denounced against 
all transgressors, shall, by the influence of unbelief, 
" bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, 
though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add 
drunkenness to thirst ; the Lord will not spare him, but 
then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke 
against that man, and all the curses that are written in 
this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot 
out his name from under heaven." (Deut. xxix. 19, 20.) 
"■ Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, 
that they may follow strong drink ; that continue until 
night till wine inflame them. And the harp, and the 
viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts : 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



155 



Bat they regard not the work of the Lord, neither con- 
sider the operation of his hands." — " Woe unto them that 
are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to 
mingle strong drink; which justify the wicked for 
reward, and take away the righteousness of the right- 
eous from him ! Therefore as the fjre devoureth the 
stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root 
shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as 
dust : Because they have cast away the law of the Lord 
of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of 
Israel." (Isaiah v. 11, 12, 22— -24.)— " Belshazzar the 
King made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and 
drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he 
tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and 
silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had 
taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem ; that 
the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, 
might drink therein. In ilmt same Jiour came forth 
fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the 
candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's 
palace : And the king saw the part of the hand that 
wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and 
his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins 
were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. 
In that night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldeans 
slain." (Dan. v. 1, 2, 5, 6,30.)—" When Herod's birth-day 
was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, 
and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an 
oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, 
being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me 
here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king- 
was sorry : Nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them 
which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be 
l 2 



156 SERMON V. 

given her. And he sent, and beheaded John in the 
prison," (Matt. xiv. 6—10.) " No drunkard shall in- 
herit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. vi. 10.) 

Hear this, ye lovers of mirth ! " Woe unto you that 
laugh now; for ye shall mourn and weep." (Luke vi. 25.) 
" Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep : Let your laughter 
be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness :" 
(James iv. 9 :) — " Weep and howl for the miseries that 
shall come upon you." (James v. 1.) "I will turn your 
feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamenta- 
tion : And I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and 
baldness upon every head : And I will make it as the 
mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a 
bitter day." (Amos viii. 10.) 

Hear this, ye that dwell in human applause ! " Woe 
unto you when all men shall speak well of you ! For so 
did their fathers to the false prophets." (Luke vi. 25.) 
Christ declares, " I know you, that ye have not the 
love of God in you. How can ye believe which receive 
honour one of another, and seek not the honour that 
cometh from God only ?" (John v. 42, 44.) 

Hear this, ye idolizers of self'! "lam the Lord thy 
God : Thou shalt have no other gods before me." 
(Exod. xx. 2, 3.) " God resisteth the proud ;" (James 
iv. 6 ;) and " every one that exalteth himself shall be 
abased." (Luke xviii. 14.) 

From this appeal to "the law and to the testimony," 
we clearly prove, that all the pleasures which have been 
enumerated are altogether contrary to the word of God. 

3. They unfit us for the enjoyment of God in heaven. 

If we cannot enjdy God's presence and blessing while 
pursuing those pleasures on earth, it necessarily follows 
that they unfit us for his more immediate presence in 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 157 

the regions of bliss and glory. I appeal now to your 
own candour, to your reason as men. Do these plea- 
sures prepare you for the service of God ? Do they 
produce in your soul an earnest desire for prayer and 
communion with the Father of spirits, that you may 
live ? Do they make you heavenly-minded, spiritual, 
happy ? Happy in afflictions, triumphant in sufferings, 
and joyous in the prospect of death and eternity ? In 
what respect do they benefit you ? Do they make you 
wiser and more rational men, more useful citizens, more 
affectionate husbands, more tender parents, more hu- 
mane masters, more obedient children, more faithful 
servants? Do they promote, in the smallest degree,, 
one Christian principle, one Christian practice ; and do 
they produce an increased iC meetness for the inheritance 
of the saints in light ?" Do they beget in the soul an 
ardent " desire to depart and to be with Christ ?"" In 
the midst of your innocent diversions, can you lift up 
your heart, and devoutly pray, " Come, Lord Jesus, and 
come quickly ?" Could you retire with gladness from 
the scenes of mirth and dissipation, and exchange your 
gay attire for a shroud, and meet death disarmed of his 
sting ? Ah ! need I press these inquiries, when you 
are willing to own, that certainly you would not wish to 
die in that hour when you are engaged in them ? But 
if indeed you make such an admission,- — which is a proof 
that a ray of light from the Eternal Spirit is still shin- 
ing upon your darkness, — beware how you continue to 
grieve that Holy Spirit, by " taking your ease," and 
continuing to "eat, drink, and be merry," lest God 
should say unto you in an unexpected hour, " Thou 
fool ! this night shall thy soul be required of thee ?" 
4. I trust these arguments which have been advanced 
l 3 



158 SERMON V. 

do fully prove the point I have endeavoured to estab- 
lish. I know that laying the axe at the root, will expose 
me to the censure of mortals ; but God forbid that, on 
that account, I should soften the truths of the gospel, or 
shun to declare the whole counsel of God. " He that 
hath ears to hear, let him hear." Whatever excuses 
men may make ; however they may attempt to justify 
the pleasures they love ; by whatever soft name they 
may call them ; they are all, at all times, " the pleasures 
of sin ;" and shall last only " for a season ." Hence we 
proceed to point out 

III. The shortness of their duration. 

1. What is human life ? What is the longest life that 
man ever lived ? Yea, what is all time when compared 
with eternity ? Suppose that Adam, our great proge- 
nitor, had lived from the creation down to the present 
day, throughout a space of nearly six thousand years ; 
and that, having seen generation after generation pass 
away, he still continued to enjoy health, and strength, and 
vigour : Suppose that his existence on earth was still to be 
continued for ages to come, even until " time should be 
no more," till the world made for his residence should be 
burned up with fire : Suppose that, during this lapse of 
ages, he had been wholly exempt from every kind of 
afflictions, and enjoyed to the full, without any interrup- 
tion, all those pleasures which have been described this 
evening : Still, with the utmost propriety, it might be 
said, " The Pleasures of Sin are only^r a season." He 
dies ; and his pleasures are no more : They are not 
merely suspended, they come to a perpetual end. 

% But, instead of reflecting on such an imaginary 
life, let us consider one that is real. " The days of our 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 159 

years are three-score years and ten ; and if, by reason of 
strength, they be four-score years, yet is their strength 
but labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly 
away." (Psalm xc. 10.) Here you have the longest 
assignable period of human life ; consequently, within 
the limits of this period, all earthly good must be enjoyed 
that is within our reach. What a little space ! Man 
scarcely lives before he dies. 

Our birth is nothing but our death begun, 
As tapers waste that instant they take fire. 

Year after year rolls round ; soon we come to the last, 
and are hurried to the house appointed for all living. 
And, even during these uncertain four-score years, we 
cannot throughout the whole enjoy the Pleasures of Sin. 
We must break off the two ends of life, — infancy and 
old age. During infancy and childhood, we know 
but little ; and in old age, of those very delights which 
may have been the joy of our life, we are constrained 
to say, " I have no pleasure in them." (Eccles. xii. 1.) 
Then, during the middle part of life, from the time of 
youth to the commencement of old age, a great portion 
of our days is spent in toil and labour, of body or of 
mind, so that we " eat our bread in the sweat of our 
brow ;" several hours of every day are required for rest 
and sleep ; days and weeks of sorrow are occasioned by 
losses of a worldly nature ; and other sorrows arise from 
afflictions, or bereavements of our kindred and friends : 
So that we meet with disappointment and woe, at every 
turn. If then we were duly to consider these things, 
and endeavour to collect together into one period all the 
moments and hours of pleasure, in which the pleasure is 
actually enjoyed, throughout a long life, probably the 



160 SERMON V. 

whole would amount to not more than the space of a 
single month ! O who that was wise would lose his soul 
for such short-lived and uncertain pleasures ! — " Vanity 
of vanities ! Vanity of vanities I All is vanity :" — And 
at the close of this scene of folly and dissipation, we may 
read these words, " Know thou, that for all these things 
God will bring thee into judgment.'" 

3. The Pleasures of Sin are/or a season ; but the pu- 
nishment in which they end is eternal. " When the 
Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy 
angels with him, and all nations shah be gathered before 
him," where shall the lovers of the world be found ? 
And when " the books are opened, and the dead small 
and great are judged out of those things which are writ- 
ten in those books,*" will their pleasures then appear to 
have been holy, or sinful ? Shall they be entitled to a 
rew ard, for having pursued them, from that God who 
judg eth righteously ? And when " the book of life is 
opened, " — the book in which is enrolled the names of 
the sons of God who lived by faith below, — shall the 
name of any one who " lived in pleasure and was 
dead,"" be found in it ? Shall a dead sinner be written 
amongst the living saints ? — No such anomaly shall ap- 
pear. But, as the scripture declares, " If any man love 
the world, the love of the Father is not him ;" Christ 
will finally disown them. They shall be collected 
amongst those who stand at the left hand of the judg- 
ment-seat, waiting the fearful issue of the scrutiny of that 
day. Memory will then recover her originally retentive 
power ; and what has been forgotten throughout life will 
be recalled, no more to sink into oblivion. One conse- 
quence of this will be, that the discourse you are now 
hearing will rush upon your minds at once ; and my voice* 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 161 

joined with the recollection of time and place, shall seem 
to sound in your ears all those denunciations of ven- 
geance, which have been brought forward from the word 
of God at this hour. Sinners, you shall hear me then ; 
and think of me then ; and remember my warnings then ; 
and especially when you come to be individually exa- 
mined by the Searcher of all hearts. Will you open 
your mouth and say, " Lord, have pity on us ; we are 
guilty ; but we erred through ignorance ; we knew not 
that those pleasures were 4 the Pleasures of Sin ?' ,, —~ 
What will you answer ? If you cannot rationally excuse 
yourself to man, and, on Christian principles, defend 
your conduct ; how will you meet Christ, arrayed in all 
his majesty and glory, at the judgment of the great 
day? Every practice that is truly agreeable to Chris- 
tianity, is so manifestly good, that it needs no vindica- 
tion : But every practice that is contrary to Christianity, 
requires argument to prove that it is allowable ; but 
what argument shall make evil appear good, to Him that 
knoweth all things ! Ah ! my brethren ! In the day 
of judgment, the sinner's arguments will all forsake him; 
his own sophisms shall be able to deceive him no longer. 
When he sees the world, on which his heart was set, dis- 
solving in flames ; and " the heavens passing away with a 
great noise, and the elements melting with fervent heat ;'' 
when he hears the terrible sentence, " Depart, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels ;" when he is cast into the lake of fire, " where 
the smoke of his torment shall ascend up for ever and 
ever :" — Then shall he know to his utter undoing, that 
" the Pleasures of Sin are only for a season."" There is 
no mirth in hell ; there are no pleasures amongst the 
damned : There is only « weeping, and wailing, and 



162 SERMON V. 

and gnashing of teeth, 11 because they are tormented in 
that flame : And one of the chief sources of their mise- 
ries is, that, through pursuing bubbles, — the veriest 
trifles of the world, which were as inconsistent with 
reason as with religion, — they have become damned to 
all eternity ! ! 

4. Seeing then that the end of all those things is 
death, let me intreat you to have compassion on your 
own immortal spirits. O do not cast yourselves away ; 
do not heedlessly perish ; but " consider your ways, 
and be wise. 11 Act a manly part ; and bring your mind 
to serious reflection. He is a coward who dares not 
think; he is willingly deceived, who is reluctant to 
examine into the nature of those things which afford 
him delight. Let me beseech you to live at random no 
longer : But know what you are about, and whither 
you are going ; and look more at the issue of a thing, 
than at any momentary gratification it may afford. Pray 
earnestly to God, that you may be delivered from that 
great curse of pleasure-takers, a dissipated mind ; and 
that he would give you a sober, thinking, understanding 
mind; and the very day that such a mind is given you, 
it will appear self-evident to you, that the pleasures of 
the world in which you have indulged, are all sinful 
pleasures, and eternally ruinous to the soul. O what a 
cause of mourning is this, to a man whose eyes begin 
to be opened I There is nothing that demands deeper 
repentance, than long attachment to the pleasures of 
sin : Because we not only sin in those pleasures, but the 
love of them has an influence on the whole life, and 
produces a growing habit of indifference about the 
souFs everlasting concerns. Many who have felt serious 
impressions when children, have had those impressions 



ON THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 163 

well nigh effaced in youth, by a fondness for the plea- 
sures of the age. The pleasures of the world are Satan's 
grand means of alluring souls into the broad path that 
leads to destruction. Come out then of that broad 
path ; forsake the world at once ; " renounce its pomps 
and vanities ;" and come to Christ, acknowledging, with 
sorrow and with shame, all your sinfulness in delight- 
ing in lying vanities ; and believmgly pray for his 
pardoning mercy, and his renewing grace, that you 
may love God with as much sincerity, and as much 
devotedness of heart, as once you loved the Pleasures of 
Sin for a season. Now then, in the strength of Christ, 
make a wise, and happy, and lasting choice. Rather 
than enjoy the pleasures of sin one day longer, " choose 
to suffer affliction with the people of God:'" For, in 
so doing, you will also choose their comforts on earth, 
and their glory in heaven : And though such a step 
may bring upon you " the reproach of Christ," of that 
reproach you need never be ashamed : For his is an 
honourable name, and an honourable cause; and his 
service never fails to bring a vast and an eternal 
66 recompence of reward." 



SERMON VI. 
GOD'S EVERLASTING DECREE* 



As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the 
wicked; but that tlie wicked turn from his way and live: Turn ye, 
turn ye, from your evil ways ; for why will ye die,0 house of Israel ? — 
Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 

" The wages of sin is death.'" — " O wicked man ! 
Thou shalt surely die !" — These awful truths, recorded 
by an apostle and a prophet, are confirmed through all 
the sacred volume. From Mount Sinai, amidst thun- 
ders and lightnings, the voice of God in the moral law 
proclaims, " The soul that sinneth shall die/' All the 
prophets repeat the warning, and cry aloud in our ears, 
" The wicked shall be turned into hell ; and all the 
nations that forget God." Jesus Christ, who was full 
of grace and truth, reminded the ungodly of " their 
worm that dieth not," and of " the fire that is not 

* A person who professed to be a Baptist Minister, came to Barbadoes 
to disseminate Autinomiau principles amongst the members of the 
Methodist Society. It therefore became the Author's duty, to guard his 
hearers, in the best manner he could, against principles of such a dan- 
gerous tendency. In doing this, it was impossible to avoid touching on 
controversial subjects more than would have been necessary under other 
circumstances, on a Foreign Mission, where religious controversies are 
happily almost unknown. 



god's everlasting decree. 165 

quenched. " The apostles also, by " the terrors of the 
Lord," sought " to persuade men 1 ' to flee from the 
" wrath to come." And " the Alpha and Omega, the 
Beginning and the End," hath borne testimony from 
heaven to all the wicked on earth, saying, " The fearful 
and unbelieving, and the abominable and murderers, 
and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all 
liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth 
with fire and brimstone ; which is the second death." 
So clearly, in the written word, "is the wrath of God 
revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
of men P' 

These threatenings ought to make sinners tremble. 
But behold with astonishment the obduracy and per- 
verseness of the heart of man ! They, who by their 
transgressions have become obnoxious to the divine dis- 
pleasure, are so far from being moved with fear, and 
from acknowledging the justness of the sentence of con- 
demnation, that they even presume to arraign the 
Almighty, and to question the equity of his proceedings ! 
Instead of laying their mouth in the dust, and pleading 
Guilty ; they presumptuously exclaim, " The way of 
the Lord is not equal !" He makes not sufficient allow- 
ance for human weakness and infirmity ; his punish- 
ments are too rigorous ; his judgments too severe !" Such 
murmurings of heart against the holy Lord God are 
groundless; because he only "judges them after their 
own ways,"" and proceeds against them strictly according 
to their deserts, awarding them the death they have 
chosen, in opposition to his gracious will and pleasure. 
He that chooses sin, chooses hell, and all those terrible 
torments which are there to be endured. " The wages 
of sin is death.'" 



166 SERMON VI. 

When the house of Israel complained so often to 
Ezekiel, — " the way of the Lord is not equal," — it is not 
improbable that they were led to such a conclusion, by 
comparing their punishment with the punishment of 
their forefathers. Their fathers sinned against God 
who brought them out of Egypt, and were sentenced to 
wander in the wilderness for forty years ; but now 
Israel, because of their sins, were doomed to a captivity 
that should continue seventy years : How natural was it 
for them at this apparent inequality of punishment, to 
cry out, God is unjust — "The way of the Lord is not 
equal.'' 1 

With no less presumption did many of them cavil 
against the promises of God ; as though he were insin- 
cere in making promises, to encourage them to seek for 
a renewal of heart, and for grace to reform their lives. 
" Thus they spake, saying, If our transgressions and our 
sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should 
we then live ?" If our captivity is to continue seventy 
years ; if through so long a period the punishment of 
our transgressions and sins is to be upon us, and we 
" pine away 11 under that punishment, despairing ever 
to see deliverance ; " how should we then live 11 as God 
hath promised ? How is the word to be fulfilled which 
you have told us in your ministry ?, — " Whensoever the 
wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he 
hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and 
right, he shall save his soul alive. 11 (Ezek. xviii. 27.) 
Does not the term of years appointed for our captivity 
shew, that, though we turned from our wickedness, 
we must die and not live ? Hath not God, according 
to his own word of prophecy, unalterably decreed that 
we shall die for our sins ? Either through the darkness 



god's everlasting decree. 167 

or perverseness of their minds, they misunderstood or 
misrepresented the conditional promise, as though it 
related to temporal life, and to a temporal deliverance. 
To obviate that objection, the prophet is directed to 
say, with greater explicitness than before, "If the 
wicked turn from his sin ; and do that which is lawful 
and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die : None 
of his sins that he hath committed, shall be mentioned 
unto him, he shall surely live ;" — the national punish- 
ment may remain, but he shall have his guilt removed, 
and shall become heir to life eternal in the world to 
come. (Ezek. xxxiii. 14 — 16.) In the mean time, Jeho- 
vah declares that the punishment of sinners can never 
be originally resolved into his decree. " He swears by 
himself, because he could swear by no greater ; confirm- 
ing thereby the immutability of his counsel ;" he bids the 
prophet make known what is His sovereign will, and 
commands his ministers now to publish it to all the 
world : " Say unto them, As I live saith the Lord God, 
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that 
the wicked turn from his way and live : Turn ye, turn 
ye, from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house 
of Israel ¥» 

To the several parts of this holy, just, sovereign^ 
everlasting, unchangeable, and merciful decree, suffer 
me now to direct your attention. 

I. The gracious declaration ; 

II. The compassionate Warning ; 

III. The moving entreaty. 

I. The Gracious Declaration: 

" As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure 



168 SERMON VI. 

in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live." 

1. God has given various revelations of himself in the 
holy scriptures, and taught us to address him by various 
names ; all of which are descriptive of his perfections, 
and point out the glorious attributes of the eternal God- 
head. He is called " Jehovah ;V. that is, The Being: He 
who is self-existent and eternal : He who is the Source 
of being to all creatures, and consequently the Source 
of all happiness. He is called Elohim, God ; or, " The 
Good Being ;" for so the word God signified in the lan- 
guage of our ancestors ;* and God, or the Good Being, 
is perhaps the very best translation that can be given of 
the name Elohim. This name seems to have a peculiar 
relative signification ; hence in hundreds of instances, 
it has a relative word joined with it ;— " thy God" — " to 
them a God ;* and so on ; — while we never once meet 
with the expression, " %/ Jehovah." Elohim, however, 
does not seem to have a relative meaning in regard to 
angels ; they worship him who is so named in the scrip- 
tures, as " Jehovah of Hosts ;" (Isaiah vi. 3 ;) the 
Fountain of being and happiness to all their countless 
numbers, in all their various and subordinate degrees. 
But of mankind it is written, " God is not ashamed to 
be called their God ;" (Heb. xi. 16 ;) — their Elohim ; 
because man was " created in the image of God, in the 
image of God created he him." El, is the name of our 
Redeemer : He is called, El-Shaddai, " God All-suffi- 
cient :" (Gen. xvii. 1 :) El-Gibbor ; " The Mighty God ;" 
(Isaiah ix. 6 ;) and Immanu-El, " God with us." (Isaiah 
vii. 14 ; and viii. 8 — 10 ; Matt. i. 23.) Elohim, there- 

* Dr. A. Clarke on Genesis i, 1. 



god's everlasting decree. 169 

fore, we may with great propriety call " God ;" or The 
Good Being who hears peculiar and distinguished love 
towards his favourite creature man. In the text he 
makes himself known by the names Adonai- Jehovah, or 
" Lord God ;" that is, the Lord Jehovah ; Jehovah the 
Sustainer, Jehovah the Governor, Jehovah the Sove- 
reign : But the declaration which follows the name 
Adonai, shews that his sovereignty is amiable and 
lovely ; as it only unfolds more fully the meaning of his 
original name, Elohim ; and shews that he is still The 
Good Being, even to fallen, guilty, wicked man. — When 
God revealed himself unto Moses, and proclaimed his 
own name, he proclaimed it thus : " The Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and 
sin ; and that will by no means clear the guilty ;" — that 
is, those who, to the end of life, refuse to turn from 
their wickedness, that they may live. But where has 
the Divine Being taught us to call him " The God of 
wrath, r ' " The God of eternal hatred against those who 
were originally made in his own image ?" Where has 
he taught us to address him by a name resembling 
Apollyon, or Destroyer? Can we find in the Bible such 
a thing as " a horrible decree ?" Hath God any where 
said, " Fury is in me ?" (Isaiah xxvii. 4.) Must we 
not reject such notions of our Elohim; our " Good 
Being, 1 ' with indignation ? Do we not believe, that all 
the names of Deity point out his nature in accordance 
with the declaration of St. John, " God is love ?" " This 
is his name for ever ; and this is his memorial to all 
generation s^ (Exod. hi. 15.) And if to Moses he made 
himself known by a name, which has an eternity of 

M 



170 SERMON IV. 

meaning in it, saying, " I will be what i will be"* 
and thus asserting his sovereignty in the most absolute 
language ; yet we need not dread that sovereignty : For 
we, who have the sacred volume completed, can now 
discover that it is as though God had said unto Moses, 
" I will variously and more fully manifest my own glo- 
rious perfections, from the day I bring Israel out of 
Egypt, in all my future dispensations, according to my 
own will and pleasure? We can look back on all those 
successive dispensations which were given to men by the 
sovereignty of God ; and we only behold brighter and 
brighter displays of the glorious truth, " God is love :'? 
And still Jehovah " will be what he will be ;" he will 
manifest himself as he pleases, " according to the coun- 
sel of his own will." But of this we are fully assured, 
that every future revelation of his perfections, through- 
out time and in eternity, shall demonstrate to all rational 
creatures, that, " from everlasting to everlasting, God 
is love." All the names then that God our heavenly 
Father bears, — the names which he has given to Him- 
self, and taught us to use, — are demonstrations that the 
gracious declaration in the text is true : " The Lord 
God hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but 
that the wicked turn from his way and live." He that 
believes not this, ought never more to pronounce the 
name of God. 

I. No theory can be established in opposition to facts z. 
Now the whole history of man, as contained in the sacred 
volume, is nothing less than one continued series of facts, 
each of which separately, and all of which collectively > 

* "I am that I am :" The words are future in the original text z. 
tvtw ton rrm 



god's everlasting deckee. 171 

demonstrate most fully arid satisfactorily that God has 
" no pleasure in the death of the wicked." 

" In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." What a wonderful system ! What a beautiful 
world I Before any creatures were formed to inhabit it, 
one might rationally conclude that it was designed to be 
a happy world. No portion of it, was suited for the 
abode of miserable beings ; although it might be capa- 
ble of affording, to different creatures, various degrees 
of happiness, according to the kind of existence it might 
please the Sovereign Creator to give. He peopled the 
world with reptiles, with fishes, with fowls, with beasts; 
but here is no misery : The Great Potter who had 
" power over the clay," did not originally make a single 
worm to be miserable. Last of all, he made man ; man, 
the perfection of the system, the lord of the creation, and 
the glory of God. " The Lord God formed" the other 
irrational creatures u out of the ground :" (Gen. ii. 19 :) 
But man he "formed out of the dust of the ground:" 
(Gen. ii. 7 :) — out of finer materials, though still earthy, 
intimating to us the superior texture of the human frame : 
And, as the " Father of Spirits," he breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living 
soul ;" a perfect creature of his kind. He created him 
in the image of God ; wise, holy, intelligent, and happy. 
He endued him with his own immortality, that he might 
become capable of enjoying everlasting felicity. 

It became the wisdom and goodness of God, to place 
in a state of trial a creature so highly exalted, before he 
gave him the highest measures of enjoyment of which 
he was capable. To be exempt from a possibility of 
falling, seems to be a part of the rewards of eternity : 
To be liable to fall, is a necessary consequence of a pro- 

m c 2 



172 SEHMON VI. 

bationary state. Now happiness that flows from reward, 
is enhanced by that very circumstance ; because all the 
Creator's rewards are infinitely superior to any real de- 
serts of the creature, and are always founded on his 
own benevolence and grace. Every reward therefore 
received from the hand of God, associates with itself 
numerous recollections ;— a recollection of the creature's 
origin ; — a recollection of his trials while in a state of 
probation, and of the manner in which the wisdom of 
God directed, and the power and goodness of God up- 
held and saved him to the end ; — -joined with the aston- 
ishing thought, that he is infinitely and eternally reward- 
ed for doing only what he ought to have done ; and 
for which he would have been sufficiently compensated 
by the preservation of his original happiness. Every 
thought which can in any way arise out of rewardable 
happiness, is a means of increasing tJtat happiness : And 
that man might be capable of such happiness, God placed 
him in a state of trial upon earth, and gave unto him 
his holy law. 

The free-agency of man was a necessary consequence 
of his being placed in a state of trial ; and it is certain, 
that his Creator, in giving him that awful power of 
choosing good or evil, was influenced only by love. 
Hence he so constituted him, that he should only be 
permitted to do evil ; while, from his native purity and 
the constant influence of God upon his mind, he should 
be strongly drawn and inclined to do good. A law was 
given him, with a threatening annexed, to be a means of 
preserving him from apostacy. The law was " ordained 
to life" — designed to keep him in the way of obedience, 
that by " doing good, he might dwell for evermore." 
Man thus formed in the image of God, was the glory of 



god's everlasting decree. 173 

the world he inhabited; the Creator surveyed all his 
works with inexpressible delight, and pronounced the 
whole to be " very good." " As for God, his work was 
perfect ;" the existence of misery did not appear to be 
wanting to give an idea of his sovereignty ; but the whole 
creation seemed to proclaim that God is " sovereign love." 
As yet then we meet with no proof," that God had any 
pleasure in the death of man, though he foreknew that 
he would become wicked by transgressing his holy law. 

What do we read in the history of the fall of man ? 
That it originated with God, he having decreed from all 
eternity that it should unavoidably be brought about ; 
and that the devil should be his chief agent in accom- 
plishing the work of destruction ? That he should be 
called from the bottomless pit, to do " the will of God 
on earth," by effectuating the ruin of our race ? No ! 
St, Paul informs us, — " By one man sin entered into 
the world, and death by sin." (Rom. v. 12.) Here is 
the origin of all our present miseries ; their only source 
is the perverted free will of man. God conditionally 
willed the continued happiness of man, and he sincerely 
expressed that will in the requirements of his law ; but 
the peculiar feature, or, as the apostle expresses it, " the 
similitude of Adam's transgression," was, that he became 
disobedient in opposition to the native desires of his 
heart : He willingly admitted evil into his soul, and was 
therefore justly condemned by him who judgeth rights 
eously. 

The great plan of human redemption arose out of the 
circumstances of man's original sin and misery. God 
foreknowing that man would, by the abuse of that respon- 
sibility which lay upon him, wickedly depart from him- 
self, determined, " according to his own purpose and 

m 3 



174 SERMON VI. 

grace," that, when that event should have taken place? 
he would give a new display of his own character as the 
God of love, in the promise of a Redeemer. Thus we 
find, that the Lord God was so far from having " plea- 
sure in the death of the wicked," " before he had done 
good or evil," that he had no pleasure in. his deserved 
death, after he became a transgressor; but determined 
to place him in a new state of trial, and to afford him 
the grace which his wretched circumstances required, to 
enable him to " turn from his wickedness," that after all 
" he might live." 

The scheme of human redemption was wonderful in- 
deed ! The Redeemer was to be no less a person than 
the Son of God. He who is called in the second and 
third chapters of Genesis, Jehovah Elohim, " the Lord 
God ;" who " spake in time past" to 'Adam, both the 
law, and the promise of redemption. The manner in 
which he should become our Redeemer, was pointed out 
in that original promise. He was to become incarnate ; 
to become man, the representative of the whole species ; 
to take the nature of all men, that he might be the " Sa- 
viour of all men." He was to be made man, not by 
having a body created in all that glory with which Adam 
was adorned before he fell ; but by becoming the wo- 
man's seed, that he might appear " in the likeness of 
sinful flesh," " a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief." His heel was to be bruised. His body was to be 
nailed to the cross ; and his soul to be made an "offering 
for sin." 

All this has been accomplished. " In the fulness of 
time," Christ was born. At his birth the oath Jehovah 
hath sworn, was confirmed by the song of angels : 
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good- 



god's everlasting decree. 175 

will towards men ;" towards the whole race : For, " Be- 
hold !" said the forerunner of the heavenly host, " I 
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all 
people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of 
David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke ii. 
11.) The very name, Saviour, proclaims to a fallen 
world, that God wills not the misery of man. Where 
is the sinner who has not a right to pronounce the name 
Saviour ? Who is there amongst ail the fallen race who 
cannot call him Kinsman and Redeemer? The man 
who may not thus accost him, cannot be found, either in 
the line of Shem, or of Japhet, or of Ham ; either 
amongst the sons of Abraham, or amongst the sinners of 
the Gentiles. Throughout China and Japan, and all 
the populous countries of the East, throughout the de- 
serts of Tartary, the wilds of Africa, and the woods of 
America, and in all the cities of civilized Europe ; — in 
every place, all round the globe, and all through the 
globe, all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues, may 
rejoice to cry aloud, " A Saviour ! A Saviour !" in 
whom is provided salvation for every human soul. 

Salvation ! let the echo fly 

The spacious earth around ; 
While all the armies of the sky, 

Conspire to raise the sound. 

" Jesus Christ by the grace of God," by the free love 
of the Father, "tasted death for every man." "He 
gave himself a ransom for all." " He gave himself a 
ransom for many;" literally, for "multitudes," namely, 
the multitudes of the elect world ; for so our world may 
be significantly called : As it is written, " God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 



176 SERMON VI. 

soever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." And again, "As by one man's disobe- 
dience, many" that is, the multitudes of the human race, 
" were made sinners ;" " so by the obedience of one, 
shall many," the multitudes of the human race, " be 
made righteous.'' " As bv^ the offence of one judgment 
came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the 
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men 
to justification of life." Jesus Christ then is " the pro- 
pitiation for the sins of the whole world." On this very 
account it is, that we read, " As in Adam all die, even 
so in Christ shall all be made alive :" That is, all human 
bodies shall be raised in the last day. Wherefore raised^ 
but because they are redeemed from the power of death ? 
We must allow, therefore, that the half of every man is 
redeemed ; and if every human body, surely also every 
immortal soul. Hence it is, my brethren, that we are 
emboldened, and encouraged to "preach the gospel to 
every creature ;" because we believe there is a gospel for 
every creature ; and that " God hath sent his Son Jesus 
to bless you, m turning away every one of you from his 
iniquities." And he hath thus sent him, in fulfilment of 
the covenant-promise " which he made with our fathers, 
saying, unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kin- 
dreds of the earth be blessed" (Acts iii. 25, 26.) In the 
transactions of Calvary we have the solemn oath of Jehovah 
confirmed by the most moving evidence. God had plea- 
sure in the death of his own Son, when "he spared him 
not, but delivered him up for us all ;" " for it pleased 
the Lord to bruise him, to put him to grief, and to make 
his soul an offering for sin :" But in that deed he has 
caused our hearts to receive the most convincing evidence 
that he hath " no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; 



god's everlasting decree. 177 

but that the wicked should turn from his way and 
live." 

Through the redemption of Christ Jesus, all our 
blessings flow. We owe our being to the grace of the 
Redeemer. For had the original transgressor been cut 
off, according to his demerits, and cast into " everlast- 
ing Are,'"' we should have justly perished in him, and 
have been deprived of the blessing of conscious exist- 
ence, as well as of the still greater blessing, — a capability 
of knowing and enjoying God for ever. That we are, 
is a continual proof that we are redeemed. Hence Dr. 
Watts has truly observed, in reference to the Re- 
deemer, 

There's not a gift his hand bestows, 
But cost his heart a groan. 

From whence it follows, that, as his hand bestows many 
gifts upon us all, his heart has groaned for us all ; and 
that the fact of the redemption of all mankind is fully 
established, when we only open the Bible and read, 
" Your Father who is in heaven, maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just, and on the unjust. 1 ' In this view of the 
blessings we enjoy, we may regard the whole creation 
as full of proofs of the gracious declaration contained 
in the text. Every ray of light that flows from the 
sun, every drop of rain that descends from heaven, 
every breeze that refreshes in the air, every blade of 
grass that springs out of the earth, and every bud that 
shoots forth its blossom on the trees, has received a 
new voice ; and, in new strains, they all declare the 
glory of the God of love, proclaiming aloud, day after 



178 SEHMON VI. 

day, and night after night, these gracious words, " As 
I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from 
his way and live." 

Through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, and his exal- 
tation at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the 
Holy Ghost is given unto all the sons of men. Here a 
new subject opens to our view, — a fact, which, if 
established, strongly proves to every mans own con- 
science, that God has no pleasure in the death of any 
sinner. How read we then in the law ? " Christ was 
the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world. " (John i. 9.) He enlighteneth every man 
by his Holy Spirit; though in too many instances, 
through the obstinacy of man, the " light shineth in 
darkness ; and the darkness comprehendeth it not." 
Yet there are seasons when a " manifestation of the 
Spirit," in some one of his " diversities of operations," is 
" given to every man to profit withal." The influences 
of the Holy Spirit, in various degrees, according as it 
hath pleased God, have been vouchsafed to all men in 
every age of the world. Cain perished, not because he 
was the son of Adam, but because he refused to bring 
a sacrificial offering, and to hearken to the voice of 
God, who said unto him, " If thou doest well, shalt 
thou not be accepted ?" " If thou doest well," that is, 
through the gracious aid of my Spirit ; for, without the 
aid of the Spirit, he could no more do a good thing 
than he could create a world. Those who perished in 
the universal deluge had " preachers of righteousness 
sent unto them ;" and with their word the Holy Spirit 
was given to " convince the world of sin." " My 
Spirit," said God unto Noah, " shall not always strive 



clod's everlasting decree. 179 

with man, for that he also is flesh ;" or fleshly, carnally 
minded, and will not yield to my gracious influences ; 
" yet his days shall be an hundred-and-twenty years." 
(Gen. vi. 3.) During that period the Spirit continued 
striving with them ; but throughout the whole time of 
merciful visitation, they "were disobedient,'" although 
" the long-suffering of God waited" for their repentance 
and salvation. (1 Peter iii. 20.) And when he foresaw 
that they would continue impenitent to the last, and 
when, to maintain the honour of his own government, 
he determined to sweep them from the earth as with the 
besom of destruction, — did he even then declare that 
he had " pleasure in the death of the wicked ?" No : 
The denunciations of his vengeance are preceded by 
these remarkable words : " It repented the Lord that 
he had made man upon the earth, and it grieved him 
at his heart." (Gen. vi. 6.) But wherefore grieve, if 
he had originally made them u vessels of wrath, fitted 
to destruction ?" Does Jehovah grieve because, what 
some people call, his own counsels are come to pass, 
on which his heart, it is said, had been set from all 
eternity. 

In succeeding ages, the Spirit was also given to the 
sons of men. Even Pharaoh had received a measure 
of the Spirit of God, whereby he might have been 
enabled, at different periods, to prove obedient to the 
word of God, in " letting Israel go." Else it had been 
folly to have delivered a charge to that effect unto 
him ; because it would have been absolutely out of his 
power at all to have regarded it, if divine influence had 
been wholly and constantly withheld from him. Of 
this every one must be convinced who considers, that 
God is the only source of good ; so that, as it regards 



180 SERMON VI. 

the original moving of the inclination to any good pur- 
pose or design whatsoever, "it is not of him that 
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that 
sheweth mercy. M (Rom. ix. 16.) But when, after many 
yieldings, which God graciously accepted by removing 
his judgments, he again and again hardened his own 
heart ; — when he had "resisted the Holy Ghost always," 
(Acts vii. 51,) by refusing to let Israel go, and by con- 
tinuing to "exalt himself against them," and against 
God; — then, and not till then, did God declare his 
judicial purpose, saying, "Even for this same purpose 
have I raised thee up" from under my successive 
judgments, instead of cutting thee off at a stroke, "that 
I might shew my power in thee, and that my name 
might be declared throughout all the earth." (Rom. ix. 
17.) Thus did he " endure with much long-suffering" 
the provocations of that " vessel of wrath," giving him 
"space to repent;" but when "he repented not," (Rev, ii. 
21,) and thereby became " fitted to destruction," God 
" willed to shew his wrath, and to make his power 
known" in bringing that destruction upon him ; that all 
the nations of the earth might fear, and in his example 
read this awful truth : " Therefore hath the God of 
Israel mercy on whom he will have mercy ;" — as he 
hath said, " on the wicked man that turneth from his 
wickedness, that he may live." But " whom he will he 
hardeneth," — namely, the wicked who will not turn from 
his wickedness ; as it is written again, " He that being 
often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be 
destroyed, and that without remedy." (Prov. xxix. 1.) 
Pharaoh, therefore, after refusing the high honour that 
was in his power, of becoming the liberator of the chil- 
dren of Israel, — by which action he would have greatly 



god's everlasting decree. 181 

glorified God, and have become a distinguished " vessel 
of mercy,"— could not, because he was at length judi- 
cially abandoned, go murmuring down to hell, saying, 
" Why doth he yet find fault ? For who hath resisted 
his will ?" He had awfully resisted the will of God 
many times before his final hardening ; but, after that 
event, he could resist that will no longer, because he 
was then " appointed to wrath, 1 ' and " sentence was 
about to be speedily executed against him," and his 
people. 

If these instances may serve to shew, that the Holy 
Spirit has not been withheld from the most sinful of 
men in different periods of the world, we have the same 
proofs of his having been given generally to the Jewish 
nation. Because Christ was " their Saviour ;" because 
" in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and 
bare them, and carried them all the days of old;" 
(Isaiah lxiii. 9 ;) therefore did he give his Holy Spirit 
unto them. " Of old the Lord appeared unto them, 
saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love :. 
Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." 
(Jer. xxxi. 3.) But notwithstanding this loving-kind- 
ness of God, though he was " their Father ; thougli 
they were the clay, and he the potter" who had made 
them, in an eminent sense, " vessels unto honour;" yet 
through their unbelief and disobedience, they became 
" vessels unto dishonour, 1 ' as one of their own prophets 
testified, saying, u Reprobate silver shall men call them, 
because the Lord hath rejected them. 11 (Jer. vi. 30.) 
Hence we need not wonder at the strong language of 
Isaiah, who, immediately after he had spoken of the 
redeeming love and pity that were shewn toward them, 
testifies, " But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit : 



182 SERMON VI. 

Therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he 
fought against them." (Isaiah lxiii. 9, 10.) That the 
Holy Spirit was given to their descendants, even to the 
most rebellious of them ; and that he had striven gene- 
rally with the Israelites, through every succeeding 
generation, is clear from these words of Stephen, when 
he stood before the Jewish Council : — " Ye stiff-necked 
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always 
resist the Holy Ghost : As your fathers did, so do ye." 
(Acts vii. 51.) 

The darkest of Pagan nations are not utterly denied 
the influences of the Spirit, which they receive through 
the merits of a Redeemer, of whom as yet they have 
never heard. It has been observed, by one who has 
travelled much in the dreary deserts and forests of 
Africa, that he has frequently been with individuals of 
the Negro race who had committed murder ; but that he 
had never met with a murderer, whose conscience, in 
the darkness of night, did not make him afraid. That 
man has never existed, whose conscience did not, at some 
period or other, reprove him for sin, or convince him 
that he was doing wrong. But what is conscience, 
since the fall of man, but a dead, unfeeling faculty, 
when considered as wholly devoid of the influence of 
the Spirit of God ? It cannot discern evil, without a 
ray of his light ; nor reprove for evil, without a measure 
of his gracious power. As sure then as even the con- 
science of Heathens " bears them witness, their thoughts 
the mean while accusing or else excusing one another ;" 
(Rom. ii. 15 ;) so sure have they also, through the re- 
demption of Christ, received the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
whose influence in the heart enables conscience to exer- 
cise its power. And if they have not a law engraven on 



I 

god's everlasting decree. 185 

stones, as Israel had; or the "law of liberty" in the 
everlasting gospel, as we have ; nevertheless, they are not 
absolutely without any law, for they have " the work of 
the law," — the inferior law of nature, — " written in their 
hearts." It is not naturally in their hearts, any more 
than the gospel is in ours ; " but it is written" there, in 
plain and legible characters by the finger of God. God 
is the fountain of law to man. Every law which he has 
given since the fall, has been suited to the condition of 
man as a fallen creature? and of course " ordained in 
the hand of a Mediator." (Gal. iii. 19.) Therefore, 
that least glorious law which he has given to the 
Heathen, comes through Christ : This leads us to the 
conclusion — that he is their Redeemer, and that he has 
bestowed the Holy Spirit upon them. On this ground 
it is, that they are morally capable of hearing? when 
" the heavens declare the glory of God ;" and of seeing? 
when the (i firmament sheweth his handy work," " Be- 
cause that which may be known of God," in the visible 
creation, " is manifest in them," by a measure of light 
from the Eternal Spirit. "For God" himself "hath 
shewed it unto them." On this ground it is, that they 
are wholly " without excuse," if when they " know 
God," however imperfectly, by his own teaching, (for 
how else can any man know God ?) " they glorify him 
not as God" the Creator ; but through pride and 
idolatry, " become vain in their imaginations, their 
foolish heart being darkened" more and more, until 
they have quenched the light which shone in their 
native darkness. But then, after they have thus 
" rebelled against and vexed his holy Spirit," God is 
awfully just in "giving them up to uncleanness through 
the lusts of their own hearts ;" (Rom. i. 24 ;) in " giving 



184 



SEliMON VI. 



them up unto vile affections ;" (Rom. i. 26 ;) — and "in 
giving them over to a reprobate mind." (Rom. i. 28.) 
The light of the Spirit then is as universal as the light 
of the sun ; only it shines in various degrees : There 
is the twilight, the opening morning, and the perfect 
day. But, in a greater or less degree, " the grace of 
God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." 
(Titus ii. 11.) 

It is however under the preaching of the gospel of 
Christ, in a more especial manner, that the Holy Spirit is 
poured out from on high. The promise of the gift of 
the Holy Ghost in all his sanctifying influences, and as 
"The Comforter and the Spirit of truth," who is to 
" glorify Christ and lead into all truth," belongs unto 
us, and to our children, and to all that are afar off, even 
to as many as the Lord our God shall call by the ever- 
lasting gospel. For " every creature v> called by the gos- 
pel, is encouraged to look for the great gospel promise, 
the indwelling Spirit of God. " The Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, 
let him take the water of life freely." In this free man- 
ner, you have been often invited, under our ministry, to 
come : And have you never felt the Spirit in your 
hearts applying the word, and repeating the invitation, 
" Come ?" Is there one individual amongst us, with 
whom the Spirit of God has not striven ? Have you 
never felt an awful fear of death, and judgment, and 
eternity ; or a sense of your sinfulness, and guilt, and 
misery ; or a desire for pardon and salvation ? All 
those gracious fears and holy desires proceeded, not 
from your own hearts, — for "in us dwelleth no good 
thing,' 1 — but from the influence of the Spirit of God. 



god's everlasting decree. 185 

It was God bearing testimony in your hearts to the 
truth of his holy word : — " As I live, saith the Lord 
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but 
that the wicked turn from his way and live." 

The last fact in the history of man, that we shall now 
adduce, in confirmation of the declaration in the text, is 
this : — All the dispensations of God in his providence 
prove him to be slow to anger, and unwilling to punish 
for sins. The sacred volume contains many awful ac- 
counts of the judgments of God, towards individuals, 
and towards nations. But did not his threatenings pre- 
cede those judgments ? Were not the punishments 
which had been threatened, often delayed for a consider- 
ble period ? Was not the intervening time often marked 
by the employment of extraordinary means, to bring 
those to repentance, who were filling up the measure of 
their iniquities ? The first account we have of Jehovah 
personally speaking to any of the human race, after man 
had been expelled from Eden, is found in the address of 
God unto Cain. It was after Cain had become " very 
wroth, and his countenance was fallen," the murderous 
purpose being already conceived in his heart, that God 
most graciously interposed in an extraordinary manner, 
to prevent him from the commission of the crime, rea- 
soning with him so compassionately and tenderly, as to 
evince most clearly, that he had no pleasure in the death 
of even an intentionally persecuting murderer of his own 
brother. And the Lord said unto Cain, " Why art 
thou wroth ? And why is thy countenance fallen ? If 
thou wilt do well" by bringing of the firstlings of thy 
flock, as Abel has done, " shalt not thou also be accepted ? 
But if thou wilt not do well" by bringing " the sin-offer- 
ing' 1 '' at hand, that "lieth at the door ,•" — still, even then 

N 



186 SERMON VI. 

thou hast no need to be envious of thy brother and 
to become his murderer : — For my acceptance of hi& 
person shall not give him the right of primogeniture ; 
— even though thou wilt not thus do well, still, " unto 
thee shall his desire be subjected, and thou shalt rule over 
him? — (Gen. ii. 8 — 7.) O what pains did God take to 
prevent Cain from becoming " a son of perdition ;" to 
reason him out of his evil reasonings ; to turn him from 
his wickedness, that he might not eternally die, but live ! 
In like manner an Enoch and a Noah were employed 
as preachers of righteousness, before the flood swept 
away men from the face of the earth. A Moses and an 
Aaron were sent unto Pharaoh, and many extraordinary 
wonders were wrought in the sight of the Egyptians, 
before they were overthrown and destroyed. The wan- 
dering of Israel in the wilderness for forty years, 
though a punishment to the Jews for their unbelief and 
disobedience, was a most gracious reprieve to the Ca- 
naanites, and afforded them a longer " space for repent- 
ance ;" especially when viewed in connection with the 
wonders wrought by the power of Jehovah, at the Red 
Sea, which were noised abroad in all those lands. Nor 
could they have been unacquainted with the singular 
dispensations of God towards his people, throughout 
those forty years ; as those nations were situated on the 
borders of that wilderness where the Israelites sojourned. 
An Elijah and an Elisha were raised up, before the dis- 
persion of the ten tribes : An Isaiah and a Jeremiah, 
before the captivity of Judah. Daniel was sent to 
preach righteousness to Belshazzar, the very night that he 
was slain ; and thus to give him warning, that, if his life 
could not be spared, his soul might have been saved at 
the eleventh hour. John the Baptist, and Christ him- 



GOD^S EVERLASTING DECREE. 187 

self, and the apostles, preached the way of salvation to 
the Jewish nation, before their final rejection and scat- 
tering into all Jands. " And what shall I more say ? 
For the tijne would fail me to tell of Sampson, of 
David," of Peter, of Judas ; men who after they had 
been saved, became wicked, by " turning away from 
their righteousness, and committing -iniquity ," and to all 
of whom God was slow to anger, because he had no plea- 
sure in their death. And those of them who turned 
from their wickedness,, he pardoned ; while those apos- 
tates who u filled up the measure of their iniquities," 
died in their sin. And God seems even to delay the 
fulfilment of the final "promise,' 1 of coming " to be glo- 
rified in the saints," in compassion to a guilty world. 
" The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some 
men count slackness ; but is long-suffering to us- ward, 
not willing that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance." (2 Peter iii. 9.) 

It is indeed awfully true, that many " despise the riches 
of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not 
knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance ;" 
and that " because sentence against an evil work is not 
executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men 
is fully set in them to do evil." (Rom. ii. 4; Eccles.viii.il.) 
But such aggravated transgressions, on the part of man, 
only serve to place the long-suffering of God in a still 
more striking light : And, to use once more his own sig- 
nificant declaration, " it grieves him to the heart that he 
has made man," when man has so absolutely fitted him- 
self for destruction, that he cannot consistently with the 
wisdom, and holiness, and justice, and goodness of God, 
be any longer spared. If God had never visited this 
world with his judgments, to such a pitch of wickedness, 

N 2 



188 SERMON VI. 

and impiety, and infidelity would men have arrived by 
this time, that Atheism would have been almost univer- 
sally professed, and our whole earth would have become 
an Aceldama, or " field of blood."' 1 See what it is now, 
notwithstanding " the hand of the Lord has been lifted 
up" so often ; and infer what it would have been, had 
he never shewn himself to be a judge in the earth. Yet 
the long delay of " the day of vengeance'" proves, that 
judgment is God's strange work, while mercy is his 
delight. 

Therefore we conclude, from all the facts connected 
with the history of man, throughout every age of the 
world, and from all the revelations which God has given 
of himself unto man, that, so far as it relates to God, 
" one thing only can be found," — " God is love :" But 
that, so far as it relates to man, this also have we found,— 
the most striking evidence of the unbelief and depravity 
of the human heart lies in his readiness to question, in 
the face of so many facts, this character of God. 

God then orig'uially wills the destruction of no man ; 
but he conditionally wills the salvation of all men. I say 
conditio?iall/j, because he wills not that the wicked should 
live if they continue in their transgressions : For he is 
" not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither 
shall evil dwell with him." (Psalm v. 4.) God could 
not permit sinners, who " die in their sins," to live eter- 
nally in his presence. The very notion involves num- 
berless absurdities. For he must then cease to be God, 
and become " altogether such an one as they are ;" he 
must trample on his own authority and law ; he must 
pour contempt on all the sufferings of his well-beloved 
Son ; and he must become unjust to all the holy angels, 
and to all the saints who have faithfully served him : 



god's everlasting decree. 189 

For the introduction of sinners into the heaven where 
they dwell, would be the introduction of all those mise- 
ries and discords which persecutors and ungodly men 
make on earth. It is, therefore, the holy, and just, and 
gracious " pleasure 1 ' of God, that the wicked shall live 
on this sole condition, " that he turn from his wicked- 
ness;"" else, notwithstanding the goodness of God, he 
shall die to all eternity. 

I proceed therefore to apply 

XL The Compassionate Warning. 
" Turn ye, turn ye. from your evil ways." 
1. The first thing this affectionate warning requires 
of sinners, is Consideration. " Now, therefore, thus 
saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. 1 ' ( Haggai 
L 5, 7.) To consider our ways is necessary, as a pre- 
paratory step to forsaking them. " Multitudes," says 
Mr. Henry, " are undone because they are unthinking." 
Could we bear a sight of the torments of the damned, 
and were we permitted to inquire of every lost spirit, 
" What was the chief, amongst the various causes, that 
brought you to this place of irremediable woe?," how 
often would the caverns of hell resound with this one 
word " Inconsideration !" How few are there who live 
on earth like thinking beings ! Who inquire seriously, 
" For what end was I made ? Am I pleasing God ? 
Am I, according to the scriptures, in the way that leads 
to glory ?" Most men take it for granted, that somehow 
or other, all will end well at last, without taking pains 
to examine the matter, and without " taking any heed to 
their ways." Now then, I beseech you, make a right 
use of the powers of your mind, and at this hour seriously 
and prayerfully consider your ways. 

n 3 



190 SERMON VI. 

Consider that they are " evil ways."" That is a suf- 
ficient reason why you should turn from them. No 
wise man would willingly and knowingly persevere in 
sin, in the practice of those things which God hath for- 
bidden, and which can never contribute to his own 
peace, either in time, or in eternity. 

Consider in what respects they are evil. They are 
evil, because they are your own ways ; such ways as one 
naturally loves when he walks after the imagination of 
his own heart. " I have pleasure," saith the Lord God, 
" that the wicked turn from his way : Turn ye, turn 
ye, from your evil ways." Nothing good can proceed 
from nature ; and it is a sure evidence that any way is 
evil, if it be only agreeable to the carnal mind. They 
are evil, inasmuch as they dishonour God. Sin is a 
transgression of the divine law. Every sin, therefore, 
is an affront offered to the Lawgiver, whose authority is 
contemned, whose threatenings are despised, and whose 
vengeance is dared. It is impossible for the tongue of 
man or angel, adequately to describe the malignity there 
is in sin. It is a violation of all those duties which arise 
from the various relations in which we stand to God. 
As our Creator, we owe him reverence ; as our Law- 
giver^ obedience ; as our Preserver, gratitude ; as our 
Father, love ; as our Friend, confidence ; as our God, 
our entire all ; and as our Judge, we ought to endea- 
vour to secure his righteous favour. But every sin is 
an offence committed against all these several relationsj 
so that many transgressions appear to concentrate in one 
single evil deed. O where shall we find words to set 
forth the evil of sin ! Sin would change every thing into 
its own nature, were not its influence counteracted by a 
mightier principle. It would make every man a fiend. 



oojd's everlasting decree. 191 

every angel a devil, the earth a chaos, and heaven a 
hell. It would extinguish the light of happiness from 
all worlds, and reduce all creatures to the last stages of 
misery, that would be consistent with their existing to 
feel the pangs of woe. Such being its nature, how cer- 
tain is it, that the ways of sinners are " evil ways," and 
that they can never know peace in them ! 

Consider further, that those ways are evil in their 
influence. There is great weight in the observation of 
Solomon, " One sinner destroyeth much good." The 
baneful influence of evil example is almost incredible. 
Imitation of others, especially of those with whom we 
frequently converse, almost insensibly steals upon us. 
How many children have early imbibed destructive 
principles, and become habituated to the practice of 
vice, from hearing the conversation, and from witnessing 
the bn.d example of their parents ; or of those to whose 
guardian care they have been entrusted! How often 
have good impressions been erased from the minds of 
youth, through the prevalence of iniquity, and the fre- 
quent scenes of wickedness which they have been called 
to behold ! How many have become confirmed in crime, 
through "joining hand in hand" with the lovers of ini- 
quity ! Were there only a solitary sinner, like Cain he 
would be obliged to flee from the society of mankind, 
and become "a fugitive and a vagabond" on the eartho 
But the " multitudes that do evil,'" embolden every 
individual sinner in the practice of his particular evil ; 
and thus evil example, like a plague, spreads a moral 
contagion throughout the whole community. Now this 
is a reason why men should turn from their evil ways. 
Were it possible for you to continue in sin to the injury 
of none beside yourself, you would be far less criminal ; 



192 SERMON VI. 

but why should you be the general enemies of mankind ? 
Were you common murderers, bathing your hands from 
morning till night in human gore, you would be com- 
paratively innocent ; but why should you be guilty of 
the irreparable crime of destroying immortal souls ? 
Think how many have already gone into eternity, who 
were once your associates in sin ; call to mind the names 
of those that lie in the burying-place of the dead, whom 
you were the means of hardening m iniquity ! Were 
you cut off in your present evil course ; were the blood 
that now flows in your veins chilled in its progress, and 
suddenly stopped ; were an angel commissioned to blow 
a pestilential wind across the land, and to mark you out 
as the first that should sicken and die ; — how many 
souls in hell would "move to meet you at your coming!" 
Whilst your surviving companions would return intox- 
icated from your grave, and still go on in the same 
course that your example has pointed out, till they also 
came to " that place of torment P Will you not at the 
remembrance of these things, consider that your ways 
are most awfully evil ? That you have been long enough 
employed in accomplishing the ruin of your fellow-men, 
and that it is now time to turn from them, that you may 
live ? 

Consider yet more particularly, and with still deeper 
seriousness, the end of your ways. They will end, if 
you turn not from them, in the everlasting ruin of body 
and soul. That body, so curiously and wonderfully 
made, shall endure the anguish of the fire that shall 
never be quenched. Every sense shall be an instrument 
of pain, a source of misery. The eye shall see no 
beauty ; it shall only behold the horrible deformity of 
fallen spirits, their fiend-like countenances, their signs 



god's everlasting decree. 193 

of torture, and the " smoke of the blackness of dark- 
ness" rendered visible by the fiery deluge. The ear 
shall hear nothing but sighs and groans, " weeping, and 
wailing, and gnashing of teeth." There are no Halle- 
lujahs in hell ; no praise, no prayer, nothing but cries 
of unutterable despair. The tongue has no employment, 
but to curse and blaspheme. But what sorrows are felt 
in the immortal mind I While there remains nothing 
but "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery 
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries of the 
Lord;" they feel despair at the two-fold recollection, 
— that once they had a sacrifice for their sin ; — but that 
now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." (Heb. 
x. 26, 27.) 

Consider then that one word Eternity ! Eternity ! 
How shall I help you to form some idea of Eternity ! 
Suppose that every drop of water in the ocean were 
severally formed into a new ocean ; — and that each drop 
of those multiplied oceans were again multiplied into 
myriads of myriads of oceans more ; — and that, through- 
out a revolution of years, equal in number to the drops 
contained in the whole, one drop only should be dimi- 
nished, till all were expended ; — vast and almost infinite 
as would be the period required to empty those millions 
of oceans of all their store, still the whole time would 
not be a second of eternity. Numbers cannot give an ade- 
quate idea of eternity ; it is beyond calculation : Nor can 
measure, for it has no end ; there is no last in eternity. 
Eternity belongs to man. There was a period when he 
was not ; but, once existing, there shall no period come 
when he shall cease to be. He shall exist as long as 
God exists ; that is, for ever and ever. But who can 



194 SERMON VI. 

bear a miserable eternity ? " Who among us shall dwell 
with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell 
with everlasting burnings ?*" (Isaiah xxxiii. 14.) I can 
determine these awful questions now : Every- mom 
among us that turneth not away from his evil ways. 
And it is because God sees what will be the unutterable 
awful issue of those ways, that he so repeatedly and 
earnestly, and solemnly, and compassionately warns us, 
saying, — " Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for 
why will ye die ?? 

2. God would have us consider our ways, that we 
may feel penitence of soul : And in the solemn warning 
which has just been repeated, he calls you to repentance. 
Sinners, you have cause to weep ! If you have right 
views of yourselves, and right feelings of heart, contri- 
tion will now arise, and you will go away this night into 
some secret place, and " weep bitterly" on account of 
your many, and great, and aggravated transgressions. 
Who ought to mourn, if you mourn not ? The grand 
cause of sorrow and anguish of soul is, not that your 
ways have been occasionally evil, in one or two solitary 
instances, (although so great an evil is sin, that if a 
man had only sinned once, for that single transgression 
he ought to go sorrowing to the grave,) but because 
your ways have been all evil, " only evil, and that conti- 
nually" " O that your head were waters, and your eyes 
a fountain of tears, that you might weep day and night" 
because of your evil ways ! Ask the gift of repentance 
through the merits of Him " you have pierced." Raise 
your hearts to God, and let your desires accompany my 
words, while I repeat these lines, which contain for you 
an appropriate prayer : 



god's everlasting decree. 195 

O for that tenderness of heart, 

Which bows before the Lord, 
Acknowledging how just thou art, 

And trembles at thy word ! 

O for those humble, contrite tears, 

Which from repentance flow ; 
That consciousness of guilt, which fears 

The long-suspended blow ! 

Saviour ! to me in pity give 

The sensible distress ; 
The pledge, thou wilt at last receive 

And bid me die in peace. 

Do you indeed feel aught of this " sensible distress ?" 
There is not a single religious reflection that you can 
onalce, which will not tend to increase it. Every thought 
will minister to godly sorrow, and to a conviction of its 
necessity. — Will you think of God? All your ways 
have been evil towards him. His sabbaths have been 
disregarded ; his name blasphemed ; his ministers con- 
temned ; his authority despised ; his judgments dared ; 
his mercies abused ; his gospel rejected ; his Son " cru- 
cified afresh ;" and all that he hath done to save you, 
rendered ineffectual, because you have "hated know- 
ledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord."— Will 
you think of yourselves ? Ah ! you have " wronged 
your own soul." Had you served God faithfully from 
the first moment of his striving with you by his Holy 
Spirit, what a contrast would your moral, and perhaps 
your temporal, condition, have afforded to what it now 
is ! As the reward of your evil ways, for health you 
have sickness ; for strength, an enfeebled constitution ; 
for vigour, trembling ; for bloom, paleness ; instead of 
comfort, dejection ; instead of hope, despair ; instead of 



196 SERMON VI. 

standing on the verge of glory, you are come almost 
within the precincts of hell. — Will you think of your 
families ? How neglected, with regard to their souls ! 
Your children have been baptized, but never instructed 
in the religion of Christ whose name they bear ; and as 
to your servants, how justly may they cry out, "No 
man careth for our souls ?" — Will you think of your 
country ? How have you helped to fill up the measure 
of your fathers' iniquities, until you have become ripe 
for destruction ! — Will you think of the past ? It brings 
no joy. Of the future? It yields no hope. Of the 
present ? It has no enjoyment. 

After all these reflections, will you not mourn ? Will 
you not desire to mourn ? Do you sincerely desire that 
sorrow which you cannot yet feel ? Then be assured, 
that the God of Israel, who bade Moses command the 
rock to send forth waters, and whose power caused the 
gushing streams to flow in every direction, will also 
give you soon to find " the meltings of a broken heart." 
Peradventure he will, just now, give you repentance, 
while listening to these gracious scriptures : " Therefore 
also now, saith the Lord, turn ye to me with all your 
heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with 
mourning : And rend your heart, and not your gar- 
ments, and turn unto the Lord your God : For he 
is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great 
kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth 
if he will return and repent, and Jeave a blessing behind 
him ; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering, unto 
the Lord your God." (Joel ii. 12—14.) "Have I any 
pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? saith the 
Lord God : And not that he should return from his 
way and live ? Repent and turn from all your trans- 



god's everlasting decree. 197 

gressions ; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast 
away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye 
have transgressed ; and make you a new heart, and a 
new spirit : For why will ye die, O house of Israel ? 
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, 
saith the Lord God : Wherefore turn and live ye." 
(Ezek. xviii. 23, 30—32.) 

3. But let your sorrowing be after a godly sort, lead- 
ing you to " bring forth fruits meet for repentance :" 
Such fruits as are proper to a penitent state of soul ; 
and such as are in the power of a repenting sinner, 
through the grace of that good Spirit who hath con- 
vinced him of sin. Reform your lives. " Cease to do 
evil ; learn to do well.'" " Turn ye, turn ye, from your 
evil ways." Resist evil always ; and, so far as you are 
able, overcome it. Turn from evil companions : Turn 
from evil principles : Turn from evil practices : Turn 
unto God through Jesus Christ, and he will freely 
pardon all your sins. " Let the wicked forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : And let 
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon. 11 (Isaiah lv. 6.) 

O that the gracious declarations of scripture, and its 
solemn warnings, were always effectual in producing the 
conversion of sinners ! O that they " would hearken 
to the voice of God in them, and obev his com- 
mandments ! Then would their peace be as a river, 
and their righteousness as the waves of the sea."" (Isaiah 
xlviii. 18.) But alas ! In many instances all those 
declarations and warnings are in vain. Through the 
deep depravity of the heart, through the power of 
unbelief, through the deceitfulness of sin, through the 



198 SERMON VI. 

strength of temptation, and through the influence of 
example, multitudes do still " pervert their way, and 
forget the Lord their God." — " We lie down in our 
shame, and our confusion covereth us : For we have 
sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, 
from our youth even unto this day, and have not 
obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." (Jer. iii. 
21, 25.) 

But, after all, Jehovah will not abandon sinners, 
until one other means has been resorted unto, — until he 
has tried what effect will be produced by those tender 
entreaties, which proceed from the yearning of his 
bowels, as the Father of mercies, the God of the Spirits 
of all flesh. He follows us in all our wanderings, and 
in all our guilt, with 

III. The Moving Entreaty : — " Why will ye 
die, O house of Israel ?" 

1. Jehovah appeals to his own mercies which have 
been ever of old. " Why will ye die, O house of Israel ?" 
As though he had said — If the wicked of other nations, 
whom I have never chosen and elected to be mine 
own peculiar people, and distinguished as " vessels of 
honour,"" will perish in their iniquities, they may seem 
to have some plea for their obstinacy, in their envy at 
your superior privileges, and at their comparative repro- 
bation, saying unto me, " Why hast thou made us 
thus?" But you have no such plea, O house of Israel ; 
you, whom I have loved and " called out of Egypt to 
be my son ;" you, " to whom pertaineth the adoption, 
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the 
law, and the service of God, and the promises." (Rom. 
ix. 4.) After my absolute and sovereign election of 



god's everlasting decree. 199 

you to such extraordinary privileges, by which I have 
manifested to you above all nations, that " I have no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked ;" and after I had 
conditionally elected you to higher degrees of future 
glory than were designed for other people, will you, 
through refusing to "' turn from your evil ways," become 
reprobates, and be for ever " cast away ?" After having 
been gracioudy exalted to heaven, will you be judicially 
brought down to hell ? " Why will ye die, O house 
of Israel ?" 

This appeal, so tender and forcible, when made to 
the ancient Israelites, will lose nothing of its power 
when brought home to our hearts. " Why will ye die," 
O sinners, born to superior privileges, under the last 
and most perfect dispensation of grace and mercy ? 
Ye, who were made for God and heaven ; and who have 
been preserved in the land of the living unto this very 
hour, for no other end than that you may live with God 
for ever ? Ye, whose capabilities of happiness are so 
great, who possess a mind with powers so vast, that in 
a moment you can bound from earth to heaven, and 
travel in contemplation through unseen worlds, and con- 
verse with the most exalted of the celestial intelligences, 
and hold communion with the eternal Tri-une Jehovah ? 
Ye, who are designed for all that happiness which you 
are capable of enjoying ; for whose mind God has pro- 
vided inexhaustible stores of knowledge of the highest 
and most exalting kind ; and whose desires, it is his 
good pleasure, should be satisfied with the eternal mani- 
festations of his own presence and favour ? Ye, whom 
he has made for himself, that he may be your all in all ? 
" Why will ye die," whom he hath so loved, " with an 
everlasting love," " as to give his only begotten Son, 



200 SERMON VI. 

that, by believing on him, you should not perish, but 
have everlasting life ?" Why will ye perish, who have 
heard " the saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners V Ye, whose 
nature the Redeemer took ; for the atonement of whose 
sins his blood was shed ; for whom he prayed on the 
cross, and intercedes in heaven ; for whose sake he 
undertook the whole work of a Mediator, that you 
might be eternally saved, if you would only turn from 
your way and live? Ye, who have been favoured with 
the gospel of salvation, with the drawings of the Father, 
and with the strivings of the Holy Spirit ; and for 
whom the Redeemer has long been pleading, " Lord, 
let it alone this year also ?'- Because you refuse to turn 
from your way and live, must even the Redeemer con- 
sent, notwithstanding his own intercessions, which are 
founded on his atonement, that at length you should be 
" cut down ?'■ After all the loving kindness which I 
have shewn you, " O house of Israel, why will ye die ?" 
— Thus does Jehovah appeal to his own mercies, 
unto all his gracious designs, and unto all his gracious 
conduct, in confirmation of his gracious declaration that 
he hath no pleasure in the misery of man. 

When Christ was upon earth, he wept over sinners 
before he destroyed them. He who sincerely wept at 
the grave of Lazarus, his chosen friend, did, with no 
less sincerity, and perhaps with a far deeper sorrow, 
weep over the reprobated Jews his enemies, whose " end 
was destruction." " When Jesus was come near to 
Jerusalem, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, 
O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this 
thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace ! but 
now they are hid from thine eyes. O Jerusalem, Jeru- 



god's everlasting decree. 201 

mlem, tJiou that Mllest the prophets, and stonest them 
that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered 
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
under her wings, and ye would not f (Luke xix. 41, 42 : 
Matt, xxiii. 37.) Need we wonder then at the inquiry, 
"Why will ye die?" 

2. Jehovah, knowing that our death originated not in 
his own will and pleasure, speaks as one at a loss to 
know from what cause it could originate; as though 
there must be some powerful reason influencing the will 
of man, to make so dreadful a choice, in opposition to so 
much goodness and mercy as had been shewn unto him : 
And as though he were anxious to find out the latent 
reason, that he might remove it, in compassion to our 
infirmities he thus speaks, " Why will ye die ?" 

Can it be from a principle of despair ? Are you 
determined to " pine away in your trangressions and in 
your sins ?" Do you, under the chastening hand of 
God, as visible in blighting your prospects of earthly 
happiness, and in bringing upon you many temporal 
calamities and distresses, give yourselves up to " worldly 
sorrow which worketh death ?" And are you so 
absorbed in grief for the loss of property, or of health, 
or of friends, that you care not what happens ; and are 
become almost equally indifferent to both worlds, deter- 
mined to go repining to the grave and to hell ? Will 
ye die because there is no hope for you in the tender 
mercies of God ? Do you conceive, that your day of 
grace is past ; or that you have committed the sin 
against the Holy Ghost; or that God cannot, con- 
sistently with his own justice, and truth, and holiness, 
forgive and save one whose sins have been so great 

O 



202 SERMON VI. 

and aggravated beyond example ? " Will ye die" in 
despair ? 

" Come now, and let us reason together, saith the 
Lord ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they 
shall be as wool." It is true, indeed, that the charge 
which Jehovah brings against you is awful and terrible 
in the extreme : — " Thou hast made me to serve with 
thy sins ; thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities !" 
But, instead of a curse, he immediately adds a blessing 
even to such a sinner : — " I, even I, am he that blotteth 
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not 
remember thy sins." "Put me in remembrance" of 
Christ my Son ; " let us plead together," the " exceed- 
ingly great and precious promises" given in, through, 
by, and with him : And let those pleadings, in which 
my soul delighteth, be begun on the part of the guilty ; 
M declare thou" the sufferings which he bore for thee, 
the merits of his sacrifice and death, " that thou mayest 
be justified :" For such a pleading is certain to end in 
thy acquittal. (Isaiah xliii. 24, 26.) " For thus saith 
the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose 
name is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy place, 
with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, 
to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the 
heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend for 
ever, neither will I be always wroth ; lest the spirit 
should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. 
For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and 
smote him : I hid me and was wroth, and he went on 
frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his 
ways, and will heal him : I will lead him also, and 
restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I 



GOD S EVERLASTING DECREE. 



create the fruit of the lips ; Peace, Peace to him that 
is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and 
I will heal him.'" (Isaiah lvii. 15 — 19.)— Despair not 
then, for yet there is hope. If you are only willing at 
last to turn from your evil ways, there is surely mercy 
for you ; and you shall find, that though " sin has 
abounded, grace will much more abound." For though 
" the deserved wages of sin is death, the gift of God is 
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

" Will ye die" through presumption ? Are any of 
you influenced by a bold and daring spirit ? Are you 
ready to reply to all the commands of God, " Who is 
the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" Do you 
" say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the 
knowledge of thy ways ¥** Do you open wide the mouth, 
and sport yourselves against the Most High ? Do you 
laugh at the threatenings of God ? Do you jest about 
the torments of hell ? O what will ye do in the end 
thereof ! What will ye do in the day of visitation, when 
" destruction shall come as a whirlwind," suddenly over- 
whelming you all ? Are you able to meet God in the 
way of his judgments? Are you able to stand before 
him when he is angry ? Can you contend with the 
Almighty? Have you an arm like God? Are you 
not afraid of his terrors ? When he shakes the earth, or 
thunders in the heavens, and rides upon the storm; 
when his lightnings gleam upon their path, and his 
tempests sweep the air ; do you not tremble ? How 
then can you bear the thunder of his power in the judg- 
ment of the great day? Are you greedy of eternal 
pain? Are you not miserable enough now, without 
longing likewise to feel the miseries of the second death ? 
Will ye die, purely because you are bent on destruction 

o % 



204? SERMON VI. 

and determined to know the worst ?— ,0 that God, in the 
pitifulness of his mercy, and in the majesty of his power., 
may pluck you as brands from the burning ! O thou ? 
who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and who wiliest 
not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn 
from his wickedness and live ; have compassion on those 
who are " hardening their hearts against thy fear," and 
give us a demonstration of thy willingness to save the 
most obdurate, by stepping out of thine ordinary method 
of converting sinners : Seize them irresistibly by thy 
power, and constrain them henceforwards to yield to the 
influences of thy grace. " Hear me, O Lord, hear me, 
that this people may know that thou art the Lord God,, 
and that thou hast turned their heart back again. 1 " 
(1 Kings xviii. 37.) 

Once more, I urge the inquiry, " Why will ye die ?" 
Is it from a principle of enmity against God, because he 
will not save you in your own way ? Is it because you 
cannot be saved in your sins, that you will not be saved 
at all ? How utterly unreasonable is your conduct ! 
You would wish to be a sinner on earth, and yet here- 
after to be a saint in Heaven. When would you obtain 
your meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light ? 
In the article of death ? Would you be washed from 
the pollution of sin, just at the moment you enter the 
eternal world ? If that were rendered a certainty, then 
would God encourage all sinners to postpone their salva- 
tion, and give them a licence to continue in iniquity to 
their very dying hour. Then would he act contrary to 
himself, and in opposition to the tenor of his written 
word, which cries in our ears, — " To-day, after so long a 
time, to-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your 
hearts." " And the times of this ignorance God winked 
at ; but now commandeth all men, every where, to 



GOD^S EVERLASTING DECREE. 205 

repent." And " now also the axe is laid unto the root 
of the trees : Therefore every tree which bringeth not 
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 
Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the 
day of salvation." You see from these scriptures, that 
God cannot, consistently with his own word, universally 
save sinners in their last hour : Dying conversions are 
very rare indeed ! 

Those, however, who desire to enjoy the happiness of 
heaven hereafter, though they continue in a course of 
iniquity, seldom give themselves any concern about a 
meetness for heaven : All their hope is, that, by some 
means or other, though they know not how, they shall 
get there at last. But if the importance of a prepara- 
tion for glory be urged, they will not consent to part 
from their sins : They choose death in the error of their 
ways. "Will ye die then, because the condition of life is 
contrary to your desires, and opposed to the natural 
wishes of the heart ; because it is said, " Turn and 
live ?V Are you resolved rather to die, than turn from 
your evil ways ? Then peradventure the death you 
have chosen shall become your portion, much sooner than 
is expected. Do not conclude, that, whatever becomes 
of you hereafter, you shall continue to enjoy your sins 
for a long season, before you feel their anguish and 
woe in the eternal world. " The wicked are driven 
away in their wickedness." " They shall not live out 
half their days? " They send forth their little ones 
like a flock, and their children dance. They take the 
timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. 
They spend their days in mirth, and — in a moment — go 
down to the grave." " How are they brought into 
desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed 

o3 



206 SERMON VI. 

with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh ; so, O 
Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their 
image" These scriptures shew, that God never permits 
a 6inner to continue long on earth, when he has finally 
" rejected the counsel of God against himself.'" Pharaoh 
and Judas soon went to their own place, after they had 
refused finally to turn from their sins to God. — " Why 
then will ye die," seeing there is only " a step between 
you and death ?" Why ? — since, whatever may have 
been your character or conduct up to this hour, at this 
moment every one may obtain grace from God to turn 
from his wickedness and live !" " Wherefore turn your- 
selves and live ye. 1 ' 

3. " Behold, the Judge standeth before the door!" 
He comes to make manifest by the light of eternity, 
before which the shadows and darkness of this present 
state vanish away, the truth of the oath which he hath 
sworn. He will now reward his saints according to a 
gracious equity. They were once in their sins : He 
called them to turn from the error of their ways. His 
grace inclined them to hearken to that call, God " work- 
ing in them both to will and to do of his good plea- 
sure ;" and then they, through his continued gracious 
influence, were diligent in " working out their own sal- 
vation with fear and trembling." The " fear and trem- 
bling" were the fruits of faith in that monitory scripture 
following the text, and others of a similar nature: 
" When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely 
live ; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit 
iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remem- 
bered ; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he 
shall die for it." Thus they were saved, from first to 
last, " by grace through faith" in the threatenings, as 
well as in the promises of God. And now they stand 



god's everlasting decree. 207 

at the judgment-seat of Christ, to be rewarded " accord- 
ing to their works." O what a scene ! to behold such an 
innumerable " multitude redeemed to God out of every 
nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue,"" all of whom 
were once guilty sinners, and some of whom were once 
" the chief of sinners !" Their number, their glory, 
their expectations, their reward, pour- a flood of light on 
this declaration which Jehovah made to mortals on earth, 
" I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that 
the wicked should turn from his way and live." If their 
death had been his delight, the joyous sentence would 
have never sounded from the eternal throne, " Come, 
ye blessed of my Father ! Inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world." 

The closing deed of time remains to be performed ; — 
a deed which the Eternal Judge is so far from delighting 
in, that he defers it to the last ; — the condemnation of 
the ungodly. They also shall be rewarded according to 
their works. And now the world will behold with asto- 
nishment the great, and holy, and wise, and gracious 
efforts that were made to accomplish the final salvation 
of all those who stand at the left hand of Christ. Not 
one is able to open his mouth and say, " I never had a 
Redeemer ; and because I had no Redeemer, it was an 
absolute impossibility that I could be saved." The Judge 
was their Redeemer ; else he would not have been their 
Judge ; nor would they have had cause " to wail" for 
having " pierced him." " For to this end Christ both 
died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both 
of the dead and living. We shall, therefore, all stand 
before the judgment seat of Christ ;" because " he died, 
and rose, and revived again for all." (Rom. xiv. 9, 10.) 
Therefore having been their Redeemer, he judges them 
according to the tenor of the redemption-covenant ; 



208 SERMON VI. 

" he judges the secrets of men according to the Gospel" 
The two grand laws by which he proceeds in his judicial 
character, are these : — " He that believed and was bap- 
tized, shall be saved : But he that believed'not, shall be 
damned." " Unto every one that hath shall be given, 
and he shall have abundance ; but from him that hath 
not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.'" It 
shall be seen, that each of the unhappy sinners had 
entrusted to him at least a talent of power, by which he 
might have " turned from the evil of his ways," and 
have become an heir of glory ; and that he now perishes, 
not for the want of grace, but for the abuse of grace, 
which was bestowed with the benevolent design of mak- 
ing him infinitely happy to all eternity. Therefore the 
last words that proceed from the lips of the Eternal 
Judge, awful as they are, may be prefaced with the 
solemn oath, ratifying and confirming for ever and for 
ever all his decrees : — " As I the Lord Jehovah live, I 
had no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that 
they should have turned from their wickedness and live. 
— I called, but they refused : I stretched out my hand, 
but no man regarded: — They would none of my coun- 
sel ; they despised all my reproof : — Therefore, they 
shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with 
their own devices." — " Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." 

And now, brethren, with judgment, and eternity, and 
heaven, and hell, before your view, let me close the 
solemnities of this hour, with the impressive words of 
Moses : — " See, I have set before you this day life and 
good, and death and evil : I call heaven and earth to 
record this day against you, that I have set before you 
life and death, blessing and cursing : Therefore choose 
life, that both ye and your seed may live." Amen I 



SERMON VII. 
A FAST-DAY SERMON* 



Yet have ye not returned unto me, salih the Lord. Therefore thus ivill I 
do unto thee, O Israel ; and because I will do this unto thee, Prepare 
to meet thy God, O Israel. — Amos iv. 11, 12. 

What nation, or what people, have ever existed upon 
the face of the earth, whose history has not afforded 
some striking proofs of the holy and righteous provi- 
dence of God ? In the scripture records of successive 
kingdoms, we every where discover, that the Lord is the 
" Governor among the nations."— And were an inspired 
history to be produced of all the changes that have hap- 
pened in the world since the commencement of the Chris- 
tian era, in the rise and the fall of empires, the flourish- 
ing and the decay of kingdoms, the government of God 
would be as distinctly recognized in them, as in similar 
events of more ancient and remote ages. 

The scripture no where presents a greater number of 
remarkable and convincing facts, illustrative of the pro- 

* On the 10th day of October, in the year 1780, one of the most tre- 
mendous storms ever known in the West Tndies, desolated Barbadoes, 
In memory of that terrible calamity, the 10th of October is annually ap- 
pointed by the Governor to be observed as a day of fasting, and humilia- 
tion.— This discourse was delivered in the Methodist Chapel, in the 
year 1821. 



210 SERMON VII. 

vidential government of God, than we ourselves have 
witnessed in our own days. The divine hand may be 
visibly seen in all the occurrences of that protracted war 
which has been but recently terminated. Miseries have 
followed in the train of guilt. The scourge of God has 
gone from nation to nation, throughout Christian Europe; 
and, in a greater or lesser degree, all have felt its awful 
but just severity. The rod was not brought from afar ; 
it was prepared at home. Men of infidel principles 
arose up within the bosom of France, and of other king- 
doms ; and, though they neither knew nor designed it, 
they became God's avengers of the blood of former 
saints. And the event has shewn, that, however se- 
verely God may punish for other individual or national 
crimes, the heaviest vengeance of all, though sometimes 
long delayed, falls on persecuting princes, and on a per- 
secuting nation. The Bourbon ruler of France, whose 
predecessors had in numerous instances " taken counsel 
against the Lord and his Anointed," was " broken with 
a rod of iron, and dashed in pieces like a potters vessel." 
In the city where flowed the blood of martyred Hugo- 
nots, in that same city was his blood shed. 

At length peace has once more visited the earth. But 
lest any man should glory in men, God has brought it 
about so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and so marvellously, 
that we must all own it to be his doing. It has been his 
work to bring " perpetual destructions to an end." 

But we need not take a wide range in search of proofs 
of the divine government : They meet us here at home. 
The West Indies are not out of the province of the Lord 
of the whole earth. Though the history of these islands 
is comparatively modern, running through a period of 
not more than three centuries, that history is fraught 



A FAST DAY-SERMONt 211 

with instruction, and teaches great moral lessons unto 
all the world. That those lessons may be understood 
by all nations, may have been the design of the Most 
High in permitting nearly every great European power to 
have possessions in the Western Hemisphere. England, 
France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden^ have 
each their colony or colonies, in ^the West Indies. 
These Islands, — whether we refer to the larger ones, as 
Jamaica, St. Domingo, and Cuba ; or to the lesser ones 
in our own Archipelago, — seem to have been selected as 
the theatre on which to exhibit public displays of the 
just and holy government of God. If it ought not to be 
affirmed, that the records of their colonization and pros- 
perity are, all through, written with blood ; and that 
this passage in Genesis (vi. 11.) might serve as a run- 
ning title to every page: "The earth also was corrupt 
before God ;" " and the earth was filled with violence ;" 
this one fact that I am about to mention must be allow- 
ed by all to be indisputable : Within so limited a period, 
no people have been so often visited with judgments of the 
most awful hind, as the inhabitants of these lands. Earth- 
quakes, some of them terrible, have shaken these islands, 
times without number. The very land has trembled 
with the load of guilt it bore. Hurricanes have often 
swept ruin across the face of the earth. Fevers have 
rapidly thinned or depopulated our towns. In all these 
visitations, the chief sufferers have been the civilized, 
European, Christian inhabitants. If then these things 
are so, and if God be righteous, what ought we to 
infer ? 

But too often the most awful visitations of God, in 
his judgments, fail of producing the desired effect. It 
was so with the Jews in the day of the prophet Amos. 



&12 SERMON VII. 

Hence he complains, that, though God had repeatedly 
smitten them, they had not returned unto the Lord. 
Whether in this respect we have been like the Jews, im- 
penitent and unyielding, it now becomes us on this day 
of fasting and public humiliation most seriously to set 
our hearts to know. I purpose by divine aid 

I. To set before you an account of the past judgments 
of God on this colony : 

II. To substantiate the awful charge : — " Yet have 
ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord :" 

III. To apply the solemn and awakening message: — 
" Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel : And 
because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy 
God, O Israel." 

I. I am to set before you an account of the past judg- 
ments of God. 

1. We have already assumed as fact, that nothing 
happens in the world by chance. This, I trust, few of 
you will be disposed to controvert. If the word "chance'" 
be found in scripture, it does not mean an unguided 
accident, that merely fell out in a fortunate manner, in- 
dependent of any directing or controlling influence from 
God : But it is used to denote a favourable occurrence, 
which, though apparently fortuitous at first view, does, 
when all its attendant circumstances are duly considered, 
strongly confirm the doctrine of divine providence. 
Thus in Ecclesiastes (ix. 11) we read : — " I returned and 
saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor 
the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, 
nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour 
to men of skill : But time and chance happeneth to them 
all.'' 1 The meaning of the passagse is this : God's 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. 213 

providence does sometimes favour men with such unex- 
pected happy occurrences, in so very seasonable, or 
timely, a manner, that he even frustrates the natural 
order of things thereby, so that the tardy win the 
race, and the weak gain the battle, and the simple and 
unlearned obtain wealth and favour ; and thus God 
Almighty's chances drive Heathenish ^chances out of the 
world. 

" Affliction then cometh not forth of the dust, neither 
doth trouble spring out of the ground." (Job v. 6.) The 
providence of God, visible as it is, in the process of 
vegetation, is still more visible in his moral government 
of man. The fruits of the earth do " spring out of the 
ground," with a great degree of regularity. We can 
see their origin, and calculate on their increase, because 
" while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and 
cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and 
night, shall not cease." (Gen. viii. 22.) But affliction 
springs often from hidden causes ; and how long it shall 
continue, or by what means it will be removed, is wholly 
unknown to man. In those afflictions in which the out- 
ward cause is visible, we must nevertheless acknowledge 
the hand of God. His hand puts every event in motion ; 
or his finger points out the direction it shall take, when 
he permits it to be brought to pass. Job was deeply 
sensible of this truth : Therefore in his heavy losses, he 
did not exclaim, " The Sabeans and Chaldeans have 
taken away my property ; the lightning has consumed 
it ; and the tempest has bereaved me of my children :" 
But he reverently and devoutly owned, " The Lord 
gave, and the Lord hath taken away : Blessed be the 
name of the Lord !" O how truly is Job denominated 
a " perfect man," according to his dispensation, when he 



&14 SERMON VII. 

so eminently observed what is to us a Christian precept, 
¥ In every thing give thanks I 11 

If individual afflictions come from God, so also do 
public calamities. But between individual and public 
calamities, there is this remarkable difference, which 
ought ever to be borne in mind : Individual afflictions 
are no proofs of God's displeasure ; for the heaviest 
trials may be the lot of the holiest saints. " Take, 
my brethren,'' 1 says St. James, " the prophets who have 
spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suf- 
fering affliction and patience. 11 (James v. 10.) And 
Jesus Christ was a "man of sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief. 11 But public calamities are always tokens of 
God's righteous anger against the nations or communi- 
ties on whom they fall : Those public distresses, there- 
fore, may in every case be properly called, The judg- 
ments of God. Solomon, has given us an universal 
maxim : " Righteousness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a 
reproach to any people. 1 ' (Prov. xiv. 34.) 

" Shall there 11 then " be evil in a city, and the Lord 
hath not done it ?" (Amos iii. 6.) Shall the sword go 
through a land, and God hath not bidden it ? If there 
be " multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ;" 
is it not because it is " the day of the Lord in the valley 
of decision ? w If the field or valley of slaughter, be 
called " the valley of Jehoshaphat, 11 that is, Jehovalts 
Judgment, is it not because Jehovah "sits there to judge 
all the nations round about ?" If he assemble warriors 
as harvest-men, and command them to begin the work of 
execution : — " Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is 
ripe ; come, get you down ; for the press is full, the fats 
overflow :" — Does he not also assign the reason ?, " for 
their wickedness is great. 11 (Joel iii. 9 — 14.) 



A FAST- DAY SERMON. £15 

As war, pestilence, and famine, are each the scourge 
of God's wrath, so also are the whirlwind and the storm. 
" God distributeth sorrows in his anger," The pillars 
of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. 
" He putteth forth his hand upon the rock ; he over- 
turned the mountains by the roots." " He maketh a 
decree for the rain, and a way for t\\e lightning of the 
thunder." " He directeth his lightning unto the ends 
of the earth. After it a voice roareth ; he thundereth 
with the voice of his excellency ; and he will not stay 
them when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvel- 
lously with his voice ; great things doeth he which we 
cannot comprehend. He saith to the great rain of his 
strength, Be thou on the earth. By watering he wearieth 
the thick cloud : He scattereth his bright cloud : And 
it is turned round about by his counsels ; that they may 
do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the 
world in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for 
correction, or for his land, or for mercy." (Job.) " The 
stormy wind fulfilleth his word." (Psalm cxlviii. 8.) 
What a fine description of Jehovah's majesty and power, 
as governing the storm, have we in one of the Psalms 
appointed for this day's service : " The earth shook and 
trembled ; the foundations also of the hills moved and 
were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a 
smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth de- 
voured : Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the hea- 
vens also, and came down ; and darkness was under his 
feet. And he rode upon a cherub and did fly : Yea, 
he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made dark- 
ness his secret place ; his pavilion round about him were 
dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the 
brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed, 



216 SERMON VII. 

hail-stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his 
arrows, and scattered them ; and he shot out lightnings, 
and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters 
were seen, and the foundations of the world were disco- 
vered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath 
of thy nostrils.'" (Psalm xviii. 7 — 15.) After the de- 
vastation of such a storm as is here pictured to our view, 
how justly may it be said to spectators : " Behold the 
works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the 
earth V (Psalm xlvi. 8.) 

2. The Judge of all the earth has, in divers instances, 
visited this island with his desolating judgments. On 
the last day of August, 1675, when this island had been 
colonized about fifty years, a most tremendous hurricane 
reduced it to almost utter ruin. " Throughout the 
whole island,' 1 says one of your own historians,* " nei- 
ther house nor tree was left standing, except the few that 
were sheltered by some neighbouring hill or cliff: And,"" 
he continues, " the next morning, when the storm was 
abated, the whole island afforded a lively, but terrible, 
idea of the tenth Egyptian plague of old^ And he 
mentions an affecting history of " one Humphrey Water- 
man, then an infant, who was found as soon as the tem- 
pest was abated, with his arm broken, and in that condi- 
tion sucking the breast of his dead mother, who had 
been killed by the lightning or the storm." By that 
awful visitation of God, scores, if not hundreds, of lives, 

* The Rev. Mr. Hughes, for several years a Rector of one of the pa- 
rishes in Barbadoes. His history is exceedingly well written, and very 
interesting. I cite from him. The same events are also mentioned in 
Poyer's History of Barbadoes, which is more recent. Mr. Poyer was 
Clerk of one of the parish churches ; but a man of good plain sense, and 
not deficient in education. 



A FAST DAY SERMON. 217 

were destroyed ; and scarcely an individual in the co- 
lony, perhaps not one, escaped without some loss in his 
family, or property, or health. 

Fifty years after that day of ruin and death, in the 
year 1731, this island was again visited with the rod of 
correction, though not in so severe a manner. The hur- 
ricane was dreadful ; several houses ^were demolished, 
and some large trees were torn up by the roots. " The 
waters of the sea roared and were troubled ; the moun- 
tains shook with the swelling thereof." But God gene- 
rally spared the life of man. 

God was not thus gracious on that memorable day of 
1780, the calamities of which we are now called to re- 
member with fasting and humiliation. Of the awful 
tempest which then suddenly brought death to many, in 
its most terrific form, there are still several living wit- 
nesses. Forty-one years have passed away since they 
beheld it ; but the most forgetful memory has a distinct 
and lively recollection of the horrors of that storm. 
With some of the aged of this colony I have conversed 
concerning it ; and they all agree, that the land was a 
land of universal mourning. Grief was depicted in 
every countenance, and it appeared as though joy and 
gladness would return no more. That day was " a day of 
wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness 
and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day 
of clouds and thick darkness." (Zeph. i. 15.) Then the 
Lord " shook the heavens and the earth, and the sea, 
and the dry land." (Hag. ii. 6.) And " he had his way 
in the whirlwind, and in the storm ; and the clouds were 
the dust of his feet. The mountains quaked at him, and 
the hills melted, and the earth was burned at his pre- 
sence ;" While all the inhabitants of the land kept an 

P 



218 SERMON VII. 

awful silence before him ! (Nah. i. 3, 5 : and Hab. ii. 20.) 
What language can describe, what mind imagine, the 
terrible grandeur of that scene ! The storm was conceived 
in silence, and ushered in by a dead, deceitful calm. 
The heavens gathered blackness ; the clouds rolled hea- 
vily along the collecting magazines of wrath ; and their 
portentous rumbling, and the fierce glare of the light- 
ning, shook every heart with fear. Fire, and hail, and 
rain, and vapour, and smoke, all hung over the guilty 
land : They waited for the signal to come rustling from 
the skies. Then God commanded the stormy wind to 
fulfil his word. Like a restless fugitive it flew all rounds 
East, West, North, South, dashing together the conflict- 
ing elements in the air, from whence torrents of wrath 
were poured forth in every direction. Darkness came 
before it was night ; night shrouded that dismal dark- 
ness, and the land seemed covered over as with the sha- 
dow of death ! How dismal that night ! Terror and 
dismay sat on every countenance. Every one feared to 
be alone ; and yet no one dared stir to seek his fellow. 
Every one thought his place, a place of danger ; but a 
place of safety none knew where to find. " Would God 
it were morning," was the wish of every heart ! Then 
the haughty daughters of pride rent their garments, and 
sat as in dust and ashes. Then the stubborn knee 
was bowed in prayer ; and the eye that knew not how to 
weep, streamed, while the cry, " O spare me !," ascended 
up to heaven ! And the guilty blasphemer groaned 
from his heart, " God be merciful to me a sinner V" Ah I 
What would have been their end, if God had " laughed 
at their calamity and mocked when their fear came !" 
What their end, if God had irrevocably decreed, " Nei- 
ther their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. 219 

them in the day of the Lord's wrath ; but the whole 
land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy : 
For - he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them 
that dwell in the land !" (ZephA 18.) 

But God had pity ! He " overthrew some of you 
with a terrible overthrow ;" for it resembled the " over- 
throw of Sodom and Gomorrah;" and the "rest were 
as a firebrand plucked out of the burning." (Amos iv. 
1.1.) Instead of sweeping all away at a stroke, some 
were spared: And the colony presented a spectacle 
similar to the camp of Israel, when Aaron stood up in 
the midst of the living and the dead, and the plague was 
stayed. The first employment of the living was " to 
bury their dead out of their sight." And afterward, 
instead of returning to their accustomed labour, and 
" eating their bread by the sweat of their brow," it 
became necessary to erect a temporary shelter, while for 
days and weeks they subsisted on fragments of food, 
until God again did them good, by causing the earth to 
yield her fruit. Nor was it until several years had past 
away, that the island resumed its original appearance of 
fertility, beauty, and prosperity. 

Need I remind you of a more recent judgment, which 
rather hung threatening over the land, than spent its fury 
upon us ? Only recollect the volcanic eruption which 
took place in a neighbouring island a few years ago;* 

* The Island of St. Vincent's. This island is from 70 to 80 miles dis- 
tant from Barbadoes.. At the eartern part of the island, is the lofty 
volcanic mountain, called The Souffrier. At the top of this mountain, 
the crater has two mouths ; each of which is at least half a mile in cir- 
cumference. There had been no eruption for about a century till the 
year 1811. After many threatening symptoms, about midnight it burst 
forth. The top of the mountain seemed to be all in a flame. Liquid 
streams flowed over the sides, and presently filled up and stopped the 

p2 



220 SERMON VII. 

when the Lord rained dust from heaven upon us, as 
upon the land of Egypt of old. The words of Isaiah 
were then literally accomplished: "We waited for light, 
but behold obscurity ; for brightness, but we walked in 
darkness. We groped for the wall like the blind, and 
we groped as if we had no eyes. We stumbled at noon- 
day as in the night ; we were in desolate places as dead 
men." (Isaiah lix. 9, 10.) How were the houses of 
prayer thronged on that day ! And some who now 

course of a large river, aud completely buried one estate under its ashes, 
with the whole of the buildings. Large stones were thrown out to sea 
a considerable distance ; while an immense quantity of fine red particles 
was continually cast upvyards, and by the current of air borne towards 
Barbadoes. In Barbadoes, a noise had been heard throughout the night, 
like the firing of cannon ; and the inhabitants concluded, that a 
naval engagement was taking place. But in the morning early, the 
sun's rays darting through the clouds of dust, caused him to have a 
fiery, blood-like appearance. In the meantime the dust began to fall, 
like powder, all over the colony. The heavens became darkened, till in 
about an hour after sun-rise, there was a total darkness. The dust de- 
scended more and more in the midst of the darkness. Every one felt a 
deep alarm ; and many thought the day of judgment was come. Lanterns 
were lighted ; but the darkness was so gross and palpable, that the 
light could not diffuse itself in the open air ; so that the people were 
obliged to grope their way to places of worship. Our chapel was 
thronged throughout the day ; and Mr. Whitworth, the Missionary, was 
completely exhausted by continuing in prayer and exhortation. It was 
not till between one and two of the afternoon, that the light began again 
to dawn on Barbadoes ; and about three, the dust ceased to fall. It then 
lay on the face of the island ; in some places two, in some three, and 
in some four inches deep. It was a merciful providence for St. Vincent's, 
that the clouds of dust were carried towards the East ; for the greater 
part must have fallen in the sea, before they reached Barbadoes. Had 
they taken an opposite direction, Kingstown, the principal town iu St. 
Vincent's, would have probably been buried, and the whole island 
ruined. In St. Vincent, so great w r as the alarm, that for two days and 
nights, our chapel, which was then the only place of worship in the 
town, was constantly crowded with the people. 



A FASf-DAi r SERMON. 221 

scoff at those who worship God, were then moved by 
fear even to bow the knee in his presence, and to implore 
his mercy. 

Tbat judgment had scarcely passed away, when God 
permitted another calamity to occur. I refer to the year 
1816. While you had the most flattering prospects of 
abundant produce, your own servants^ wickedly, and in 
opposition to every precept of Christianity, rose against 
you : They plundered your property, and devastated 
your estates, though they were restrained from taking 
away your lives. I repeat it : Their conduct was sinful 
in the sight of God ; and in direct violation of every pre- 
cept of Christianity. But alas I Did they know Chris- 
tianity ? Had they not been, in a vast majority of 
instances, either wholly neglected, or kept back from 
learning the fear of the Lord ? And is it not a fact, 
worthy of some attention, that of those who had been 
religiously instructed, whether by the clergy, or minis- 
ters of inferior name, not one was found partaking with 
the guilty ; or so much as bidding them, "■ God speed? 1 

Have you not also been visited with a yet more recent 
calamity ? Call to mind the torrents of rain that de- 
scended in 1817, and flooded your lands, and checked 
the progress of vegetation, and caused much of your 
produce to die in the earth. 

And, even to the present day, do we not feel the rod 
of God ? Else, why is this complaining in our streets, 
this stagnation of trade, this decay of prosperity, this 
general dissatisfaction of mind? Whatever be the 
secondary causes of these evils, it is plain that God has 
a controversy with us : And that controversy will not 
end, till we forsake our public sins, and heartily turn 
unto the Lord. 

p3 



SERMON VII. 

Now, after this review of the past judgments of God, 
it is impossible that any one but the most obdurate can 
persevere in saying, " God hath forgotten : He hideth 
his face ; he will never see it. God will not require it."" 
And it is evident that every heart ought to be " moved 
with fear," when, notwithstanding such awful visita- 
tions, the charge is still brought against us : — " Yet have 
ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord." 

II. I proceed to substantiate the charge : — It is God's 
charge and not mine. 

1. " Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a 
trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and 
the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, 
and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righte- 
ousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God : 
They ask of me the ordinances of justice ; they take 
delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we 
fasted, say they, and thon seest not f Wherefore have 
we afflicted our soul, and tlwu tdkest no knowledge ? 
Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and 
exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and 
debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness : Ye 
shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be 
heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? 
A day for a man to afflict his soul ? Is it to bow down 
his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes 
under him ? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an accept- 
able day to the Lord ? Is not this the fast that I have 
chosen ? — to loose the bands of wickedness, — to undo 
the heavy burdens, — and to let the oppressed go free, — 
and that ye break every yoke ? Is it not- — to deal thy 
bread to the hungry, — and that thou bring the poor 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. 

that are cast out to thy house, — when thou seest the 
naked that thou cover him, — and that thou hide not 
thyself from thine own flesh ?" (Isaiah lviii. 1- — >7.) 

In reference to the storm of 1780, it may perhaps be 
admitted, that some temporary reformation of those who 
immediately suffered was produced ; but if it were so, 
the good has not continued to the present generation. 
" Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see." 
(Isaiah xxvi. 11.) Could we sin more, could we do 
more wickedly, if we had never been visited with any 
judgments at all ? Which of the commandments have 
we not broken ? Is it not counted a reproachful thing to 
" fear God and to keep his commandments ?" Doth not 
u he that departeth from evil make himself a prey?" 

2. " Because of swearing the land mourneth." (Jer. 
xxiii. 10.) What a variety of oaths are used ! How 
often is the name of the Most High taken in vain, by 
mortals who thoughtlessly or impiously exclaim with 
almost every breath, " Lord Almighty," ". Lord God," 
" Christ God," " By Christ," " By God," and so on ? 
How many lovers of oaths, but how few lovers of prayer, 
are found amongst us ! Were an angel commissioned 
to go through the land, as in ancient times through the 
land of Egypt, and mark out for destruction and death 
every blasphemer; and for preservation every one who 
truly feared the Lord ; what multitudes would want a 
grave, and how few would ' remain to commit them to 
the tomb ! 

3. " Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath 
contentions ? who hath babbling ? who hath wounds 
without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? They that 
tarry long at the wine : They that go to seek mixed 
wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red ? 



224 SERMON VII. 

when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth 
itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and 
stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange 
women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things." 
(Prov. xxiii. 29 — 33.) See how these two evils, drunken- 
ness and adultery ', abound ! 

How many are there who " drink wine with a song !" 
(Isaiah xxiv. 9-) " They also have erred through wine, 
and through strong drink are out of the way ; they are 
swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through 
strong drink. For all tables are full of vomit and fil- 
thiness, so that there is no place clean." (Isaiah xxviii. 
7, 8.) Yet they " say to the seers, See not; and to the 
prophets, Propliesy not unto us right thing's ; speak unto 
us smooth things, prophesy deceits : Get you out of the 
way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of 
Israel to cease from before us" Thus they " despise 
the word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and 
stay thereon." (Isaiah xxx. 10 — 12.) How many are 
there who will not admit a man to be a drunkard, if he 
be not quite a beast; who call intoxication, cheerfulness, 
sprightliness, hilarity of spirit, mirth ! It is with them, 
as it was with the Jews in the days of Isaiah, — while 
they were " drawing iniquity with cords of vanity, and 
sinning as it were with a cart rope ; — while they were 
mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle 
strong drink ; — they called evil good, and good evil ; 
they put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; 
they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 
v. 18 — 22.) Yea, is there not one occasion of intoxica- 
tion of which it is a shame to speak in a Christian land ? 
Is it not a customary remark, that many attend funerals 
for the sake of the strong drink that at such times is 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. %%5 

given ? Ah ! I have too often seen the drunkard tot- 
tering at the grave of his acquaintance, or of his friend ! 
I have heard him jest about death, while looking on a 
human skull ! 

4. And as to adulter?/, how pointed are the words of 
the prophet Jeremiah ! (xxiii. 10.) " The land is full 
of adulterers." Of those who have entered into the 
sacred engagements of the married state, how few are 
found faithful to the wife of their youth ! Are not the 
married as the unmarried ? Do they not maintain their 
harlots ? Have they not children of every shade of colour ? 
And do they not thereby cause endless jealousies and 
heart-burnings, which suffer them to have no enjoyment 
of domestic life? Know ye of no instance in which the 
female slave supplants the wife ? And wilt thou, after 
such admitted familiarity, gravely maintain that for 
another man to sit down to meat with a Christian slave, 
would endanger the peace of the community? that 
it is necessary to keep up the distinctions in society? 
Then why dost thou, O man, habitually break them 
down by the reigning power of lust ? 

5. And what shall we say of that species of adultery, 
which the scripture calls " Fornication ?" Of the whore- 
monger, whom the apostle classes with adulterers, when 
he says ?, " Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed 
undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will 
judge." (Heb. xiii. 4.) And what saith the same apos- 
tle concerning the end of such sinners ? " Know ye not, 1 ' 
— is it not a plain, self-evident truth — " Know ye not, 
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of 
God ?" But, as though he were aware that such sins 
have a peculiar deceptive influence, he immediately adds, 
" Be not deceived : Neither fornicators, nor idolaters. 



SERMON VII. 

nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves 
with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, 
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom 
of God." (1 Cor. vi 9, 10.) And yet in the face of 
such plain declarations of scripture, how many are there, 
who, beside living in the sin, will either absolutely jus- 
tify, or partially excuse their practices ! " What differ- 
ence is there," say they, " between us, and married 
persons, save this, that the marriage ceremony has not 
been performed ?" 

To this boasted argument, so often repeated, and so 
confidently rested on by many to the ruin of their souls, 
it becomes our duty to give a full and decisive answer, 
that whether men will hear or forbear, we may be clear 
of their blood. Let me "speak as unto wise men, 
judge ye what I say." 

(1.) The argument is not true in itself; it carries 
falsehood on the very face of it. For you intimate, that 
the only difference lies here, that " the marriage cere- 
mony has not been performed." Now that is not the 
only difference. The woman is not respected by your- 
selves as a wife, but treated as a servant ; or, in some 
few instances, doated on with a blind fondness, and in- 
dulged to a degree that brings a man's temporal circum- 
stances to the verge of ruin. She is not respected even 
by others, who live in like sin ; nor by the domestics, 
who look with envy on one who, from being their equal, 
is raised to a large share of authority over them. And 
sometimes on the domestics she looks with jealousy and 
suspicion, lest she should be supplanted by a rival. Here 
is another point of difference : No man can put away his 
wife for any cause save adultery ; but one who sustains 
not that relation, can be put away whenever her main- 
tainer pleases, and without any cause at all. Again, her 



A FAST-DAY SEllMON. 227 

society is not enjoyed, but stolen ; and her offspring are 
counted base and disreputable ; a living reproach both to 
him who bears the name of father, and to her who is 
called by the tender name of mother. Is it of such a 
progeny that the scripture speaks, " Thy children shall 
be like olive plants round about thy table ?" And will 
you yet have the boldness to say, that the performance 
of the marriage rite constitutes the only difference be- 
tween you and those who are united in that covenant 
engagemeut ? Look at the facts that have been stated, 
and know. 

(2.) The argument proceeds on a false assumption ; 
namely, that the marriage union is no more than a cere- 
mony ; and therefore to be but slightly regarded. The 
scripture teaches us, that it is an ordinance of divine 
institution, co-eval with the origin of man : It is there- 
fore substantially a religious, sacred, and divine institu- 
tion. The ceremonial of it consists only in the mode 
observed, which varies in different nations. But as it 
regards marriage itself, we read : " He which made 
them, male and female, at the beginning said, For this 
cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall 
cleave to his wife : And they twain shall be one jlesh. 
Wherefore, they are no more twain, ' but one flesh. 
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man 
put asunder. 1 " (Matt. xix. 4 — 6.) It is impossible for 
any language more strongly to declare, that from the 
commencement of the world, marriage has had for its 
sanction, the express appointment of God. Hence the 
law was renewed from Sinai : cc Thou shalt not commit 
adultery." It is acknowledged by all the prophets, and 
confirmed by Christ and his apostles. Jesus wrought 
his first miracle at a marriage in Cana of Galilee. The 



£28 SERMON VII. 

passage from the Hebrews : " Marriage is honourable 
in all," has been already cited; and nearly the last 
words of the Bible, as spoken by Christ himself to John, 
are, " For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore- 
mongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever 
loveth and maketh a lie." (Rev. xxii. 15.) Now from 
these scriptures we see, that what you callmere ceremony 
is every thing : It is that which constitutes the relation, 
and without which the relation cannot exist.. Yea, your- 
selves are conscious that the relation exists not ; hence, 
to use the expression of an apostle, your offspring are 
considered "as bastards, not as sons." 

(3.) While the scripture sanctions the marriage union, 
it condemns every other kind of union in the most abso- 
lute and unqualified language. Recollect our Lord's 
conversation with the woman of Samaria. Addressing 
himself to her conscience: "Go," said he, "call thy 
husband, and come hither " The woman, smitten with 
a sense of guilt, "answered and said, I have no husband." 
Did Jesus reply ?, Thou hast ; there is nothing wanting' 
but the marriage ceremony ; bring him hither, and I will 
perform that. No! He deepened the conviction of 
guilt by answering, " Thou hast well said, / have no 
husband : For thou hast had five husbands ; but he whom 
thou now hast, is not thy husband : — In that saidst thou 
truly." (John iv. 16 — 18.) Again, I refer you to the 
plain words of St. Paul, (1 Cor. vii. 2,) " Nevertheless, 
to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, 
and let every woman have her own husband." Is it not 
manifest, that, in every union where there is not the rela- 
tion of husband and wife, there is fornication ? Hear, 
yet once more, the unqualified declaration of the same 
apostle : " Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed 



A FAST-DAY SERMON* 229 

imdefiled ; but whoremongers and adulterers God will 
judge." Surely the apostle, after such a strong saying, 
might have taken up the words of Christ : <4 If I na d not 
come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but 
now they have no cloak for their sin." — (John xv. 22.) 

But it will be urged, " Did not men anciently take a 
second wife ? Does not the scripture say so ?" 

Yes, it relates the fact, but no where approves the 
practice. The scripture relates the existence of many 
evils ; but their existence does not alter the law of God ; 
and as to the will of God concerning marriage, that is so 
clearly and definitively made known in the gospel, that to 
" abstain from fornication" has from the beginning been 
considered imperative on all who bear the name of Chris- 
tian. We conclude then, that adultery and fornication 
are sins, because they are clearly transgressions of God's 
holy law. 

6. Now if those evils abound, does the sin of sabbath- 
breaking prevail to a less awful extent ? Behold, the 
day of the Lord is made a day of drudgery and com- 
merce by the bulk of the population ; and they who are 
exempt from bodily labour, do on that day enter their 
counting-house, and transact their mercantile concerns ; 
while some make it a day of visiting and receiving visits: 
" finding their own pleasure, and thinking their own 
thoughts." On the sabbath, have not our public streets 
the appearance of a fair ? And were a Mahommedan 
or Heathen to land on our shores on that day, and to 
enter our churches, and read the law conspicuously 
placed over the altar, — " The seventh day is the sabbath 
of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt do no manner of 
work ; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man- 
servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy 



230 SERMON VII. 

stranger that is within thy gates ;" — on passing through 
the town, and beholding all manner of work carried on 
with continual noise and uproar, would not such a man 
conclude, that God's law had been publicly exhibited in 
his house, purely to insult the Lawgiver, and to shew 
how little his authority was regarded ? Is not this sin 
of sabbath-breaking at the root of all other sins ? Has 
not the cry thereof entered into the ears of the Lord of 
Hosts ? Is it not the grand cause of bringing down the 
judgments of God upon us ? But have we profited by 
those judgments? Though we fast this day •, will the 
very next sabbath be less profaned? And can such 
hypocritical fastings be acceptable unto God ? May he 
not repeat to us his former declaration to Israel ?, — " The 
calling of assemblies I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, 
even the solemn meeting. ,, (Isaiah 1. 13.) Is not the 
charge then substantiated? "Yet have ye not returned 
unto me, saith the Lord : 

But it was the peculiar characteristic of that generation, 
which lived in the days of the prophet Malachi, that they 
went beyond their fathers in a confidence of their own 
righteousness, though they were, if possible, more cor- 
rupt and depraved in heart and life. Hence they heard, 
with astonishment, the admonitions of the prophet, 
though he referred to the plainest and most apparent 
evidences of guilt, that were manifest to every one who 
would but seriously consider the reality of things. A 
sad proof this of the blinding, as well as the hardening 
nature of sin. I shall refer to a few instances, taken 
from the book of the prophet Malachi. 
.7. " Thus saith the Lord of Hosts unto you, O 
priests, that despise my name. But ye say, Wherein 
have we despised thy name T y (i. 6.) " Ye offer polluted 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. £31 

bread upon mine altar." And yet in the face of this 
glaring fact, they asked with amazement, " Wherein 
have we polluted thee ?" (i. 7.) Again, " This have 
ye done ;" — the reference is to plain fact : — " This have 
ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with 
tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that 
he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it 
with good-will at your hand. Yet ye say, Where- 
fore?" (ii. 13, 14.) " Ye have wearied the Lord with 
your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him ¥ 
When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the 
sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them ; or, Where 
is the God of judgment f (ii. 17.) " Even from the 
days of your fathers ye are gone away from my ordi- 
nances, and have not kept them. Return unto me and 
I will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. But 
ye said, Wherein shall we return?" (iii. 7.) Are we 
not already righteous? How are we to return unto 
God ? — Again it was said to them, " Will a man rob 
God? Yet ye have robbed me.. But ye say, Wherein 
have we robbed thee ¥" (iii. 8.) " Your words have been 
stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What 
have we spoken so much against thee 9" (iii. 13.) 

Are there no points of agreement, my brethren, 
between you in these various instances, and the ancient 
Israelites? Can ye indeed bear the truth? Or must I 
forbear to draw the parallel, lest in the conclusion I 
should find a just, but keen, and powerful application 
of the truth, in the words of another inspired Jewish 
teacher ? — " Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart 
and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : As your 
fathers did, so do ye." (Acts vii. 51.) 

8. One thing more must be declared, and then I have 



232 SERMON VII. 

delivered my own soul. I cite again from the prophet 
Malachi. (hi. 15.) "And now we call the proud 
happy ; yea, they that work wickedness are set up ; 
yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. 11 So 
that as St. Paul saith : (Rom. i. 32.) " Knowing the 
judgment of God, 11 we not only "commit such things 1 ' 
as are evil, " but have pleasure in them that do them? 
Hence one might repeat the inquiry of the prophet 
Jeremiah ; " Were they ashamed when they had com- 
mitted abomination ? Nay, they were not at all 
ashamed, neither could they blush. 1 ' (Jer. vi. 15.) It is 
a proof that men have no shame, when they feel little 
or no concern about concealing their iniquities. Were 
the swearer to close every avenue of his dwelling, and 
"curse God 11 in secret; — were the drunkard to retire 
to an inner chamber, and shut the doors upon himself, 
that none might see a human swine ; — were it customary 
for harlots, as in the days of Judah, to cover them- 
selves with a vail when they appeared abroad ; — or, 
were the adulterer only to approach his lurking-places 
in the gloom of midnight, retiring before the morning 
could disclose his guilty deeds ; — then might we own, 
that the last symptom of a reprobate mind is not yet 
discoverable, — an incapability of blushing for " abomi- 
nation. 11 But when the reverse is the case, the conclu- 
sion is forced upon us, that many even " glory in their 
shame. 11 I appeal to your own consciences, Is not sin 
counted a reputable thing ? Here is the proof : Let a 
man live according to custom, and he passes without 
much observation ; but let him live " soberly, right- 
eously, and godly, 11 and he becomes at once " a proverb 
of reproach and shame. 11 

And now I would ask, Is not the solemn charge, not 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. 233 

of an erring mortal, but of the eternal Jehovah, fully 
substantiated ? — " Yet have ye not returned unto me, 
saith the Lord." If there he no returning to the Lord, 
where there is no forsaking qf sin, by what argument 
shall we seek to prove, that we have returned unto him ? 
Why should we vindicate ourselves ? Why be influ- 
enced by the Spirit of one, of whom we read in the 
scriptures, that he, "willing to justify himself, said, 
And who is my neighbour V Would it not be better, on 
this day of professed humiliation, to humble our souls 
truly — " by falling on our face," and crying out, — 
" Thou, O Lord, art righteous, though we have done 
wickedly both we and our fathers ?" Especially when 
we remember that " for all this his anger is not turned 
away, but his hand is stretched out still !" " Shall I 
not visit for these things, saith the Lord ? Shall not my 
soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?" " Therefore 
this will I do unto thee, O Israel : And because I 
will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O 
Israel." 

III. Let me apply this solemn and awakening message. 

1. It expresses the divine determination in a very 
significant manner. It is introduced with a " therefore ;" 
shewing that God has a reason for all his procedures 
with men in the way of judgment. " Therefore :" — 
because " ye have not returned unto me :" Because 
when I have " stricken you, ye have revolted more 
and more. " Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O 
Israel !" What is the import of this threatening which 
is expressed in such a very general manner, no one 
particular evil being specified ? There is a fearful sig- 
nificancy of meaning in the indefinite denunciation : 

Q 



234 SERMON VII. 

" Thus will I do unto thee." It is as though God had 
said unto the Jews : " My future judgments shall not 
be like the past. In the former years of visitation I 
also made known my goodness ; in wrath I remembered 
mercy. But in those which are approaching, I will 
make the wickedness of the wicked to come to an end, 
by bringing wrath upon them to the uttermost. r) 

Accordingly we find that thus it happened unto im- 
penitent Israel. " Fill ye up then," said Christ, " the 
measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of 
vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ? 
Wherefore behold I send unto you prophets, and wise 
men, and scribes : And some of them ye shall kill and 
crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your 
synagogues, and persecute them from city to city : That 
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon 
the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the 
blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew 
.between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto 
you, All these things shall come upon this generation.' 
(Matt, xxiii. 32 — 36.) " There shall be great tribula- 
tion," — when God fulfils that word against Israel, 
" Thus will I do unto thee," — " such as was not since 
the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever 
shall be. And except those days should be shortened, 
there should no flesh be saved" (Matt. xxiv. 21, 22.) In 
those declarations of the Saviour, you have the mean- 
ing of the threatening brought to view ; and the total 
destruction of Jerusalem, and the final dispersion of the 
Jewish nation, shew how awfully it was fulfilled. • 

An exact knowledge of futurity is wisely hidden 
from the view of mortals. But from the history of 
events that have happened in the world from its creation 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. 235 

to the present time, and from an attentive observation of 
the moral government of God, we may be justified in 
remarking, that when God begins a controversy with a 
people, he will not give over that controversy, till it 
issue, either in their conversion, or in their destruction. 
Judgment shall follow judgment till lie humbles or con- 
sumes. A cessation of judgments is only a renewed 
" space" given " for repentance." If, during that time, 
men know the day of their merciful visitation, and turn 
to God, He will delight to pardon and forgive : But if 
they repent not, heavier and still heavier judgments 
.shall come, till the Lord " utterly overthrow them as 
he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." It is now forty- 
one years since that dreadful tempest scowled over this 
island, and made the land to appear "aland of dark- 
ness, as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, 
without any order, and where the light is as darkness." 
(Job x. 22.) We have only had, in the intervening 
time, lesser visitations. But God, has not spent all his 
arrows. His arm is not shortened, nor his power 
diminished ; he is Almighty still : And if we " despise 
the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long- 
suffering ; not knowing that the goodness of God leads 
us to repentance ;" are we not, after our " hardness and 
impenitency of heart, treasuring up unto ourselves 
wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the 
righteous judgment of God ?" (Rom. ii. 4, 5.) 

2. "Prepare then to meet thy God" in the whirlwind 
and the storm ! " Thou shalt be visited of the Lord 
of Hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great 
noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devour- 
ing fire." (Isaiah xxix. 6.) " Woe to the crown of 
pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious 

q 2 



236 SERMON VII. 

beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the 
fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine ! Be- 
hold the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which 
as a tempest of hail, and a destroying storm, as a flood 
of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the 
earth with the hand. The crown of pride, the drunkards 
of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet. For the Lord 
shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth 
as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, 
his strange work ; and bring to pass his act, his strange 
act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands 
be made strong : For I have heard from the Lord 
God of Hosts a consumption, even determined upon 
the whole earth.' 1 (Isaiah xxviii. 1 — 3; xxi. 22.) "Behold, 
the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a con- 
tinuing whirlwind : It shall fall with pain upon the head 
of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not 
return, until he have done it, and until he have per- 
formed the intents of his heart : In the latter days ye 
shall consider it." (Jer. xxx. 23, 24.) 

Only four years are past since the Lord visited the 
Leeward Islands with the tempestuous hurricane. Have 
ye not known ? Have ye not heard ? Have ye not read 
of Tortola ? Of St. Bartholomew's ? Of St. Martin's ? 
How those colonies have been made a wilderness ? And 
that very tempest began to collect amongst these most 
easterly colonies. For some time it hung hovering 
over Barbadoes, and threatened us with the calamities 
of 1780 : But God in great mercy spared us. He only 
permitted the great rain of his strength to flood this 
island ; while the storm was directed to spend its 
ordained fury over the sister colonies. But will 
God spare for ever ? Will he always threaten only ? 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. 237 

T>o you still continue impenitent ? More impenitent ? 
More hardened ? More reprobate ? " Prepare to meet 
your God ;" for he hath declared " the day of ven- 
geance is in mine heart ;-" (Isaiah Ixiii. 4 ;) and if 
in his heart, though you discern not the tokens of 
that vengeance, it is preparing, and God longs to 
execute it. He will bring it suddenly, and in a more 
awful manner than your ears have heard, or than your 
fathers have declared unto you. " And as it was in the 
days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son 
of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married 
wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that 
Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and 
destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of 
Lot ; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, 
they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot 
went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from 
heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be 
in the day when the Son of man is revealed." (Luke 
xvii. 26—30.) 

" Prepare to meet thy God" in death ! Whether a 
tempest, or a fever, sweep you from the land of the 
living ; or a more common affliction bring you down to 
the grave, the day of dissolution is at hand. That is a 
very striking expression in St. Luke's Gospel : " Thou 
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
Death then is a requiring of the soul : The body is not 
wanted until the morning of the resurrection, but the 
soul must immediately enter on its eternal portion of 
misery or woe. Hear ye then the solemn message, 
Prepare for death ! He is coming ; make ready to meet 
him ! Unclothe for the grave ; pass into the invisible 
world ; meet there the God of the spirits of all flesh ; 

o. 3 



SERMON VII. 

and hear him utter the awful charge, " Yet have ye not 
returned unto me. 11 

Prepare to meet God as the Judge of quick and dead. 
" Behold ! He cometh with clouds ; and every eye 
shall see him, and they also which pierced him : And 
all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. 
Even so, Amen !" " But who may abide the day of 
his coming ? And who shall stand when he appeareth ? 
At his presence the heavens and the' earth flee away, 
and no place is found for them." He is seated upon the 
throne of his glory; he calls all nations to appear before 
him. " Prepare to meet'" your holy and righteous 
Judge ! Go forth, ye who have been unhumbled by 
the most awful calamities, unsubdued under the chastise- 
ments of his hand, and learn, at his tribunal, the fearful 
result of neglecting to return unto the Lord. It is now 
too late to return : Nor will the grace of repentance now 
be given. For when " the heaven departs as a scroll 
when it is rolled together, and when every mountain and 
island is removed out of its place ;*" no influence of the 
Spirit will be imparted to those who have died in their 
sins, on which account they will be incapable of even 
desiring repentance. They will have no desire for godly 
sorrow ; though through anguish they may desire to 
avert their punishment. Hence they will cry out " to 
the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from 
the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the 
wrath of the Lamb : For the great day of his wrath is 
come; and who shall be able to stand f (Rev. vi. 
16, 17.) 

3. O that you may be awakened to seek the Lord 
while he may be found ; and to call upon him while he 
is near ! To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not 



A FAST-DAY SERMON. 239 

your hearts ! Let me exhort you each to-day, while it 
is called to-day, humble yourselves under the mighty 
hand of God. Sin only exposes to the displeasure and 
anger of Almighty God. And though he is willing to 
pardon, he pardons none but the penitent. Leaving 
then the conduct of others, let every man look into his 
own heart, and examine his own life - T . and smiting upon 
his breast, let every one say, f God be merciful to me, 
a sinner !" O that God would make us a congregation 
of penitents ! O that the word we have heard might 
cause us to be " moved with fear," and become " the 
power of God to our salvation !" " Come, and let us 
return unto the Lord : For he hath torn, and he will 
heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.'" Let 
us take with us words of confession and supplication, 
while we turn unto the Lord ; and let us say unto him, 
" Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously : So 
will we render the calves of our lips." Let us own our 
personal, our family, our national sins, and ask grace 
to " amend our ways and doings," through the merits 
of Him who bled and died for us, for our children, for 
our countrymen, and for all the world. If ye thus 
return unto the Lord with all your heart, and with all 
your soul, to hearken to his voice, and to obey his com- 
mandments always, it shall be your righteousness ; and 
the services of this day shall be called an acceptable fast 
unto the Lord. Then, " from this day will he bless 
you :" He will open the windows of heaven and pour 
you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough 
to receive it. Then shall the earth yield her increase : 
Arid God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall 
bless us ; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. 



249 SERMON VII. 

May you, by timely repentance, avert the impending 
evil and enjoy the promised good ! May you, through- 
out all your succeeding generations, be saved from the 
stormy wind and tempest ! May you, and your chil- 
dren, and your children's children, never witness cala- 
mities like those we have this day commemorated ! " The 
Lord preserve you from all evil; the Lord preserve 
your souls ! The Lord preserve your going out and 
coming in, from this time forth, and for evermore i n 
Amen and Amen ! 



SERMON VIII. 
METHODISM EXPLAINED* 



The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine. Jesus 
answered him, I spake openly to the world ; I ever taught in the syna- 
gogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort, and in secret 
have I said nothing. — John xviii. 19, 20. 

TifE history connected with this scripture is exceed- 
ingly interesting. Jesus Christ, having been betrayed 
at midnight, by one of his own disciples, to those who 
were sent to apprehend him, was brought before Caia- 
phas, who was that year " the high priest" 1 of the Jewish 
nation. Before him Christ stood as a prisoner in bonds, 
and was questioned relative to " his disciples and his 
doctrine." In this private conference, however, our 
Lord gave no direct answer to his inquiries; but replied, 
" I spake openly to the world ; I ever taught in the 
synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always 
resort ; and in secret have I said nothing. 1 '' Jesus un- 
doubtedly perceived something insidious in the high 
priest's questions; hence he added, " Why askest thou 

* This discourse was delivered to a very crowded audience, at one of 
the anniversaries of the opening of the new Methodist Chapel in Bar- 
badoes ; the author does not distinctly recollect the year. The chapel 
was a solid, stone building, "and had not been erected quite four years 
when demolished. 



242 SERMON VIII. 

me ? Ask them which heard me, what I have said unto 
them : Behold they know what I have said." There 
was nothing justly offensive in such a reply; yet the 
conduct of our Saviours enemies shews that they who 
have wrong on their side, often find something plausible 
in the circumstances connected with their own violence, 
as a justification of their conduct. For " when he had 
thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by, struck 
Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou 
the high priest so f' "Jesus answered him, If I have 
spoken evil, hear witness of the evil; but if well, why 
smitest thou me ¥" — However, it was easier to revile and 
to smite the Saviour, than to find any thing to lay to his 
charge. 

The last sentence in our text must be understood in 
a qualified sense : " In secret have I said nothing ;" 
that is, nothing contrary to what I have taught in pub- 
lic. It must be admitted, that Jesus Christ sometimes 
taught his disciples privately ; but on those occasions, 
his instructions were of the same nature and tendency, 
as those which he gave to the multitudes who publicly 
attended on his ministry. To his disciples he explained, 
in a clearer and more familiar manner, the same doc- 
trines which he spake openly to the world. 

Christianity, then, had not in its origin, nor had it in 
its progress in the apostles' days, any secrets that could 
not be divulged ; or any impenetrable mysteries with 
which none but the initiated were made acquainted: 
But from the commencement, the whole pure and sim- 
ple system stood open to inspection, and not only allowed, 
but even courted investigation. 

Such being the genius of the Christian religion, 
amongst the various denominations who profess to have 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 243 

embraced it, there ought to be, in this particular, an 
agreement with-it. Every part of their economy, and 
the whole of the doctrines they maintain, ought to be 
publicly stated ; that men may be able to judge of their 
moral and religious tendency. Secresy in religious mat- 
ters is always a strong indication of some radical corrup- 
tion ; for which reason, it ought everto awaken suspicion : 
But whenever a Christian society manifests a willingness 
to make an open and honest declaration of all that is 
known, and believed, and practised, suspicion should 
not be allowed any longer to remain. What is candidly 
professed, ought with candour to be received. 

Influenced by such sentiments, we have judged it 
right, and, on the return of another anniversary of the 
opening of this house of prayer, seasonable also, to lay 
before you an impartial statement of the work in which 
we are engaged. We are Methodist Missionaries from 
choice ; and, because we love Methodism, we labour to 
promote it, being convinced, that, however reproachfully 
the term may be used by many, it is only another name 
for Scriptural Christianity. It is Christianity re- 
vived amongst professing Christians. Nor would it be 
difficult to produce evidence, that there is in these days 
a general agreement between the rise and progress of 
Methodism, and the rise and progress of Christianity. 
The first Christians were denominated " a sect"" in their 
day, as we are now ; but they had not, nor have we, any 
sectarian views in the invidious application of the term ; 
for, though " a sect every where spoken against," our 
principles are catholic, and our one maxim, which we 
regard as extending to all mankind, is, " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbour as thyself." 

That I may enter as fully and extensively into the 



244 SERMON VIII. 

subject, as the time allotted for this service will allow, I 
proceed to direct your attention, 

I. To the origin of Methodism, and its increase in 
the world. 

II. To the more immediate object of our Mission to 
the West Indies. 

III. To the doctrines we believe and preach. 

IV. To the discipline by which our Societies are go- 
verned. 

V. To the manner in which the Missionaries are pre- 
pared for their work. 

VI. The means by which they are supported. And, 

VII. The success which has attended their labours. 

I. The origin of Methodism, and its increase in the 
world. 

1. Methodism first took its rise at the University of 
Oxford, in the year 1729. Whether it be good or evil, 
it is of college growth. The name " Methodist" was 
first given to the Rev. Charles Wesley, and afterwards 
to his brother, the Rev. John Wesley, and a few pious 
students who associated with them ; because they had 
agreed to observe an exact method in their studies, and 
in their general conduct. They simply lived as Jesus 
Christ would have done had he been at Oxford ; and, 
for that reason, they soon became " a proverb of re- 
proach and shame." Yet the name is perfectly harmless ; 
though many are accustomed to associate with it a train 
of dismal ideas of heresy, schism, and rebellion : Yea, 
the name has now become the most honourable appella- 
tion in the world, next to that of Christian ; for it is no 
longer confined to the people whose it is by right, but is 
commonly applied to every man who " lives soberly, and 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 245 

godly, and righteously, in this present world." Every 
Church-of-England man, who by the aid of grace tries 
to observe his baptismal vow y is to all intents and pur- 
poses a Methodist ; for, according to the true, original 
application of the term, a Methodist is nothing more 
than an improved Churchman. And though, in the 
course of years, through a variety^ of unforeseen and 
providential circumstances, the Methodists as a body 
have become separatists from the church in practice, 
though not Dissenters in principle ; yet do we rejoice to 
know, that instrumentally we have been the means of 
reviving true Christianity in that church which has 
forced us from her communion : And with whatever 
jealousy some of her members may watch our proceed- 
ings, in this will we always glory, that our love and 
veneration for the Establishment remains unalterable, 
and our desire for her purity unceasing. " Peace be 
within her walls, and prosperity within her palaces !" 

2. One thing connected with the origin and spread of 
Methodism cannot be too strongly insisted on ; because 
it is a satisfactory reply to an objection which has been 
often repeated against the conduct of the venerable 
Wesley. If his character be found unimpeachable, his 
motives are attacked; and he is described as having 
been an ambitious man ! Ambitious of what ? Of ho- 
nour ? Was he not " made as the filth of the earth, and 
as the offscouring of all things ?" Would not you be 
offended, if any one should so far give you a share of 
his honour, as simply to call you Methodist ? Would 
not you labour vehemently to clear yourselves of the 
charge of being one of " Wesley's followers ?" At all 
events, then, his honour was of a different kind from 
that for which you have a relish ! Was he ambitious of 



246 SERMON VIII. 

ease ? " He was in labours more abundant !" Of 
riches? " He coveted no man's silver, or gold, or ap- 
parel." No, says one, But he was ambit l ious of being 
the head of a party I Then God Almighty, instead of 
" taking the wise in his own craftiness,'" was a co- 
worker with him ; and the ambitious Wesley was cor- 
rect, when, in his expiring moments, he exclaimed, 
" The best of all is, God is with us ! The best of all is, 
God is with us F O the blessedness of such ambition ! 
What comfort it gives a man in a dying hour ! " Let 
me die the death of the ambitious, [if this be ambition,] 
and let my last end be like his !" 

3. " Ambition !" It fills me with amazement to con- 
ceive how any man can read a correct history of Metho- 
dism, and suffer his mind to entertain a notion so entirely 
the reverse of all the facts that meet his attention in 
every page. The circumstance to which I before al- 
luded, that entirely uproots this insidious objection, is, 
that, though Methodism is now a system, it is a system 
that has been formed by piece-meal : It had no pre-con- 
ceived plan for its model, no, nor yet even for its ground- 
work ; we have been led into our discipline by gradually 
following the providence of God. It is clear, that the 
name " Methodist" was not chosen by the Wesleys, 
nor in the least thought of ; it was unexpectedly given 
them by a young gentleman of Christ Church ; and 
" the name being new and quaint, took immediately, and 
the Methodists were known all over the University." In 
the year 1730, a few of Mr. John Wesley's pupils, and 
one of Mr. Charles Wesley's, united with the original 
little band, who were also honourably called, " The 
Godly Club," by some of the ungodly ; and in the year 
1733!, a few more joined them, amongst whom was the 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 247 

Rev. James Hervey. These were all collegians, and 
lived according to rule or method. In the year 1735, 
the celebrated George Whitefield was added to their 
number. As yet, however, there was no Methodist 
without the limits of the University of Oxford. 

4. About that time the Rev. John Wesley went to 
America, as a Missionary to the Indians. He was sin- 
cerely desirous of glorifying God, and of doing good to 
his fellow-men : But, notwithstanding his zeal, and the 
deep fear of God which he possessed, he did not clearly 
understand the great doctrine of the Bible, of the Refor- 
mation, and of the Church of England, Justification 
by Faith ; nor did he enjoy in his heart " the forgiveness 
of sins.'" It was about the year 1738, or 1739 ; that is, 
ten years after the distinctive appellation of " Metho- 
dist" had been given ; that he, having returned to Eng- 
land, began to preach every where, that " whosoever 
beiieveth in the name of Christ shall receive remission of 
sins." This doctrine was misunderstood by many, as 
it is to this day, and disliked by more: So' that, 
though crowds attended on his ministry, one church 
after another was closed against him, till at length he 
was shut out of all. "Not daring," says Mr. W., " to 
be silent, after a short struggle between honour and 
conscience, I made a virtue of necessity, and preached 
in the middle of Moorfields." Happy necessity that 
constrained him to imitate the Saviour, who from a 
mountain, or in a wilderness, taught the people in the 
things of God ! He continues : " Here were thousands 
upon thousands, abundantly more than any church could 
contain ; numbers of whom never went to any church, 
or place of public worship, at all. More and more of 
them were cut to the heart, and came to me all in tears, 



248 SERMON VIII. 

inquiring with the utmost earnestness, What they must 
do to be saved? I replied : If all of you will meet me 
on Thursday evening, I will advise you as well as I can. 
The first evening about twelve persons came ; the next 
week, thirty or forty. When they were ■ increased to 
about a hundred, I took down their names and places 
of abode, intending as often as it was convenient to call 
upon them at their own houses." Thus without any 
previous plan or design, began the first Methodist So- 
ciety in England ; which Society, Mr. Wesley denomi- 
nates — " A company of people associating together, to 
help each other to work out their own salvation."* 
They were all now members of the Established Church ; 
and it is clear that such associations of her members must 
tend not to weaken her influence, but to increase her 
strength and glory. Shall she exercise no discipline 
towards those of her sons who combine together in immo- 
ral practices ; and only then begin to take the alarm, 
and cry out about irregularity, " when wicked men turn 
away from their wickedness, and do that which is lawful 
and right," by associating together for prayer and godly 
conversation ? 

5. Thus however it was, in point of fact, with the early 
Methodist Societies. — Religious companies of men and 
women, similar to the Society in London, were soon 
formed in Bristol, Newcastle, and various other parts of 
England ; and also in Ireland and Scotland. Mr. 
Wesley's success in converting sinners to God, was a 
means of increasing prejudice in the minds of num- 
bers ; while there were some who rejoiced that " Christ 
was preached," and that he was glorified in the salvation 

* Wesley's Works, vol. viii, page 39S. 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. ^49 

of souls. Scarcely one however of the clergy was will- 
ing to become his co-adjutor in the work;— a Fletcher 
and a Grimshaw were indeed, in part, his helpers ; — 
and from his own principles as a clergyman he was not 
willing to solicit, or to receive the aid of Dissenters. 
Hence as converts multiplied, a want of pastors arose j 
But the Lord of the harvest supplied that want, by 
" thrusting forth labourers" of a primitive stamp inmodern 
times : — Men who " in all things approved themselves 
as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, 
in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, 
in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; bypure- 
ness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by 
the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of 
truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righte- 
ousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour 
and dishonour, by evil report and good report : As 
deceivers and yet true ; as unknown and yet well 
known ; as dying, and behold they lived ; as chastened, 
and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as 
poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet 
possessing all things.'" (2 Cor. vi. 4—10.) God called 
them to the work of the ministry, and Mr. Wesley dared 
not prevent their being employed in it : — " What was 
he, that he could withstand God ?" (Acts xi. 17.) If 
it be inquired, how is it ascertained, that God had 
actually called them to the ministry ?, 1 answer, By 
this simple yet sure proof — they had all those minis- 
terial qualifications so beautifully enumerated by St 
Paul in the passage just cited. Every man who is a 
living exemplification of that inspired description of Chris- 
tian ministers, is undoubtedly " inwardly movecLby the 
R 



250 SERMON VIII. 

Holy Ghost" to take the office of preaching the everlast- 
ing gospel unto the sons of men. 

6\ The employing of Laymen as preachers of the 
gospel appeared, to many, a greater irregularity than 
any thing that had before occurred in Methodism. It 
greatly increased Mr. WesleyVinfluence ; for the minis- 
ters who laboured in connexion with him, naturally 
looked up to him for counsel and advice, as unto a 
father : But it*was an influence of God's sending, and 
not of his own seeking ; and throughout life, he regarded 
it as a talent which he'Vas bound to employ in promot- 
ing the glory of God, and the salvation of men. Through 
the instrumentality of those faithful and zealous " fel- 
low-helpers, - " under the guidance and direction of his 
judicious counsels, a mighty work of reformation was 
wrought in every part of the British empire ; and it i& 
now spreading itself more and more throughout the 
whole world; and connected, as Methodism is, with 
every thing that essentially belongs to the kingdom of 
Christ, we may venture with gratitude and praise to 
declare, that "of the increase of its government and peace 
there shall be no end." — Its rise, its progress, its past 
and its present history, are severally a living comment 
on those words of the prophet, " Not by might, nor by 
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." 

II. I am next more particularly to consider the special 
object of the Methodist Mission to the West Indies. 

1. The immediate object of our Mission to these 
Colonies is thus expressed, in those " standing instruc- 
tions" with which every West India Missionary is fur- 
nished when appointed to his station. — " Your parti- 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 251 

^ular designation is to endeavour the religious instruc- 
tion and conversion of the ignorant, Pagan, and neglected 
black and coloured population of the island, or station, to 
which you may be appointed, and of all others who 
may be willing to hear you." In obedience to these 
instructions we breathe good-will to '\ all sorts and con- 
ditions of men ;" and endeavour, to the uttermost of our 
power, to diffuse universal happiness, by " spreading 
abroad in every place the knowledge of God our Re- 
deemer." We are men of one business ; our calling is to 
save immortal souls. The one object we propose, as a 
stimulus to zeal and unwearied exertion, is simple yet 
grand ;-—-. " the bringing of many sons to glory:" And 
the means by which we seek its attainment, are pure and 
efficacious, — preaching' and living the gospel. " We 
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord ; and 
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." 

% But while we are the servants of you all for our 
Master's sake, we do indeed ingenuously acknowledge 
that we are especially, the servants of those who are 
slaves. Of the appellation "Negro Parsons," which has 
often been contemptuously given, we are not ashamed ; 
it is an honourable badge of reproach ; it is our diadem ; 
it shall be one of the brightest gems in our future crown 
of glory ; we do therefore distinctly avow, that, in a 
religious sense, we are servants to Negro slaves, for 
whom our Saviour died. Who so much need our sym- 
pathy, and tears, and prayers, and exertions, as they ? 
How wretched is their moral condition without the ever- 
lasting gospel ! How sad and afflicting the degradation 
of th«ir minds ! But little superior to the beasts that 
perish, the only end they seem to answer in creation is, 
to prove how deeply man has fallen by sin ! We behold 
n 2 



252 SERMON VITT. 

them entirely ignorant of God ; or, at best, possessing 
but dark and confused notions of a Supreme Being. 
Superstitious to an excess, the devil becomes an object 
of worship, more than the ever-blessed God ; and tor- 
mented by the chimeras of a disordered mind, they often 
suffer more from imaginary evils than from afflictions 
that are real. Having no just ideas of God, it is impos- 
sible that their minds can be impressed with a sense of 
those duties that belong to their station in life: If they 
be obedient, it is merely owing to constraint, and not to 
any conviction that obedience is a duty. As to morals, 
it must be allowed, that they are extremely corrupt ; of 
which we have daily proofs in the swearing and drunken- 
ness, the dishonesty and adultery, and other crimes that, 
amongst the Pagan slaves, universally abound. Such 
being their destitute moral condition, it is evident that 
they need instruction. 

3. This is seldom denied ; but then it is frequently 
affirmed, that they are such poor ignorant creatures, 
instruction in religion will do them no good ; do what 
you may they will always remain the same. Speaketh 
the scripture then in vain, when it saith, " Ethiopia shall 
soon stretch out her hands unto God ?"" Are not these 
the sons of Ethiopia? They are transplanted to a 
British soil ; but have " they changed their skin ?" 
Does not their very sable countenance forcibly remind 
us of the promise ? Their country's name is found in 
our Bible, connected with one of the most cheering pro- 
phecies; and I thank God, that, in the West Indies, we 
do behold its accomplishment. I have known many 
instances of the most ignorant of them being made wise 
to salvation ; and have seen that Christ is able to con- 
vert Africans by the same word of truth which converts 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 253 

men of other countries and nations. Hence I draw the 
conclusion, that, when Jesus Christ commanded his dis- 
ciples " to preach the gospel to every creature, he did 
not intend that Pagan Africans should be excepted. 
If my assertion be not deemed sufficient, would you 
converse with any impartial persons, unconnected with 
us as a body, they would bear testimony to the great 
good which has been done by religious instruction in the 
sister colonies ; especially in Antigua, St. Christopher's, 
and Tortola. 

4. If then it be admitted, that the Negroes need in- 
struction ; and if the Bible and numerous facts demon- 
strate, that they are capable of receiving it, it cannot 
long remain a doubt whether or not it ought to be given. 
Who has a right to withhold from them the cheering 
light of the gospel? Who has authority to declare, 
that they shall never hear of the common salvation? 
Will any man attempt it, unless he be influenced by a 
spirit similar to those of whom our Lord said ?, " Woe 
unto you, for ye have taken away the key of know- 
ledge : Ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were 
entering in ye hindered." (Luke xi. 52.) Every Chris- 
tian, surely, will help them to find the way to the king- 
dom of heaven; and by all the means in his power, 
seek to promote their spiritual and eternal warfare. He 
will employ all his energies in endeavouring to " turn 
them from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God ;" nor will he ever meet them without 
offering up a secret prayer to God for their conversion 
and salvation. 

5. Influenced by such sentiments, " we are come as 
far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ : 
Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of 

e 3 



254 SERMON VIII. 

other men's labours ; but having hope, when your faith 
is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according 
to our rule abundantly ." (2 Cor. x. 14, 15.) Without 
any desire for gain, without any expectation of honours, 
without any prospect of ease, we have left our native 
land, and all that are dear to us in it, that we may spend 
our time in serving the outcasts of men. If you envy 
not our employment, respect our motives ; they are the 
noblest that can exist in an immortal mind. If you are 
suspicious of our designs, get accurate information con- 
cerning them ; but beware of those polluted sources 
that minister to your colonial prejudices, for they will 
lead you astray by partial statements of fact, and by 
plausible and pleasing insinuations. If you inwardly 
believe that we are sincere, and may be useful to the 
community, act a manly part, and encourage our 
labours ; for he is a coward, and not a man, who blushes 
when men scoff at him for boldly advocating a righteous 
and benevolent cause. In fine, we are Christians ; we 
come to teach Christianity : If you are Christians also, 
you must wish us "good luck in the name of the 
Lord." 

That you may be assured that we teach Christianity, 
I now proceed to declare 

III. The doctrines we believe and preach. 
. 1. We preach the doctrine of the fall of man. " We 
believe in God the Father Almighty ; Maker of heaven 
and earth, and of all things that are therein. We be- 
lieve that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are one 
Jehovah, from everlasting to everlasting :" That God 
created man in his own image, holy and righteous ; and 
that man fell from original righteousness by his own 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 255 

transgression, as it is written in the scripture. As il 
regards Adam, the first sinner, we conceive that the fall 
was not merely partial in its effects, leaving him in pos- 
session of a less degree of holiness than he had when 
created ; but that it was entire ; that all holiness was lost 
in a moment, and every evil principle seated within him, — - 
his mind, which, before was spiritual,1)ecoming "carnal, 
and enmity against the God" whom once he loved with 
all his heart and soul ! So that, whatever of penitence 
he may have afterwards manifested, it is to be attributed, 
not to some remaining latent principles of goodness, but 
to a measure of restoring grace, communicated to him 
through the Mediator of the New Covenant. As it re- 
gards his posterity, we believe that every man born into 
the world inherits from his parents a depraved nature ; 
as it is written, " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and 
in sin did my mother conceive me." " That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh. ,, And again, " How can he 
be clean that is born of a woman ?" And St. Paul, in 
reference to his moral condition by nature, declares: 
" For I know, that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth 
no good thing :*" But " sin dwelleth in me." Man 
then is by nature utterly destitute of every thing that is 
good or holy ; nor has he even the least inclination to it ; 
while all the evil that exists in the world can only be 
traced up to one source, — the heart of man, which is 
44 deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." 

2. We preach the doctrine of atonement for sin, by 
the blood-shedding of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. In reference to the Redeemer, we hold, as " the 
pillar and ground of the truth" that he is " God over all, 
blessed \ for ever" We call him Lord and Saviour, be- 
cause we believe him to be God. And we hold that he 



356* SEIIMON VIII. 

is also truly a man; that he was "conceived by the 
Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary ;" that " he 
took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of 
Abraham ; that he was made a little lower than the an- 
gels, for the suffering of death." We believe that the 
death of Christ was necessary for the salvation of the 
world ; that his incarnation, and his spotless life, and his 
wonderful miracles, and his heavenly doctrines, would 
have been of no benefit to man, if He had not "poured 
out his soul unto death, and been numbered with the 
transgressors." " Without the shedding of [his] blood,, 
there could [have been no remission ;" because there 
could have been " no sacrifice for sins." This doctrine 
is the glory of the gospel ; it is our heaven on earth to 
make it known ; " we preach Christ crucified." As to 
the extent of Christ's atonement, we believe that by that 
" one oblation of himself once offered, he hath made a 
full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satis- 
faction, for the sins of the whole world ;" that he " by 
the grace of God tasted death for every man." On this 
ground it is that we can, with comfort of mind, address 
every one who kneels around the sacramental table, 
and say : — " The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and 
soul unto everlasting life." As to the benefits actually 
received by his death, we maintain that he becomes "the 
Saviour of all men, but especially of them that believe." 
A general justification from the guilt of Adam's sin, — 
which St. Paul calls "justification of life," because it is 
a release from the sentence of death, which, according 
to the tenor of the old covenant of works, lay against the 
original transgressor, and all his posterity, — is " come 
upon all men ;" — it comes upon all infants, through the 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 25? 

grace of the Redeemer, on which account we believe, that 
all who die in infancy are eternally saved. From his 
grace proceeds that docility, simplicity, teachableness of 
disposition, and gentleness, that we sometimes find in 
children, notwithstanding their natural propensity to sin ; 
of which good qualities our Saviour spake when he said 
to his disciples, " Except ye be converted and become 
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." And it is worthy of remark, that when our^ Sa- 
viour thus spake, he brought before his disciples a spe- 
cial example in an individual child : " Jesus called a 
little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them ; 
and said, Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as 
this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in 
my name, receiveth me? Christ seems to have selected, 
for an example of humility, a child zvho had received con- 
verting grace, one of those " babes and sucklings out of 
whose mouths God had perfected praise." 

3. We preach the doctrine of justification through 
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Because all men are 
justified in infancy from the guilt of Adam's transgres- 
sion, it does not necessarily follow that therefore they 
are renewed in infancy. A seed of grace is implanted ; 
but the soil of the heart is unfavourable to its life and 
growth. The struggle between good and evil is early 
felt within ; but while the mind continues " carnal," the 
evil will prevail, and man will become daily guilty of 
innumerable transgressions. On account of his own per- 
sonal and actual sins, and especially because of unbelief* 
he is condemned by the moral law, and by the pure and 
holy gospel of Christ. Nor can he be finally saved, un- 
less he obtain present justification ; that is, the remission 



258 



SERMON VII: 



of that punishment which those actual sins, the fruit of 
an unholy heart, have a thousand times deserved. We 
call justification a present blessing, because we believe it 
attainable in the present life. We cannot better express 
our views, than by adopting " the Apostles' Creed," as it 
is generally called : We believe in " the forgiveness of 
sins," as a blessing intimately connected with " the com- 
munion of saints," and to be obtained in " the holy ca- 
tholic church ;" as preparatory to the joyous "resurrection 
of the body," and to our inheriting " the life everlasting." 
Hence St. John in writing to babes in Christ, "to the 
the least of all saints," says, " I write unto you, little 
children, because your sins are forgiven you, for his 
name's sake." (1 John ii. 12.) But to those who are 
farther advanced in grace he testifies, " If we confess 
our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 
i.9.) 

We believe and preach, that present justification is 
granted "only for the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ- 
and not for our own works or deservings." " For what 
saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it 
[faith] was counted unto him for righteousness. Now 
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of 
grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but 
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
counted for righteousness." (Rom. iv. 3 — 5.) We con- 
ceive that, in the very nature of things, it cannot pos- 
sibly be otherwise; because, as stated by St. Paul, the 
character who is to receive justification, is, previously 
to that act of equitable mercy on the part of God> " un- 
godly :" Now while " ungodly" he can have no " works 
or deservings" by which he, on his part, might claim 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 259 

pardon as a " debt" from the hands of the holy Lord 
God. We therefore maintain, that faith is the great 
and immediate mean of a sinner's justification. " The 
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, 
is unto all, and upon all them that believe." (Rom. iii. 
22.) " With the heart man believ tth unto righteous- 
ness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto sal- 
vation." (Rom. x. 10.) And it appears to us that jus- 
tifying faith, in the act of justifying, has an especial 
reference to the mediation of Christ, as founded on his 
sacrificial death. "We are justified by his blood; re- 
conciled to God by the death of his Son : Have received 
the atonement." (Rom. v. 9 — 11.) " Being justified 
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus ; whom God hath set forth a propitiation 
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, 
for the remission of sins that are past, through the for- 
bearance of God." (Rom. iii. 24, 25.) " Repentance 
towards God" is:: indeed necessary, and goes before jus- 
tifying faith, and "fruits meet for repentance" also, "a 
ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well," so far as 
there may be time and opportunity : But neither that 
repentance, nor those necessary fruits of it, can, accord- 
ing to the common acceptation of the word in our day, 
merit pardon. For though, in one sense, they are good, 
inasmuch as repentance is the gift of God, and is pro- 
duced by the Holy Spirit ; yet, in another sense, " we 
doubt not" but that those works which proceed from 
repentance " have in them the nature of sin," inasmuch as 
the heart is still " an evil heart of unbelief," and destitute 
of the love of God. Repentance therefore is so far 
from meriting pardon, that man has need to have his 
very repentance itself pardoned ; because the streams of 



260 SEliMON Till. 

" godly sorrow 1 '' become contaminated and defiled by 
flowing in the channel of a polluted heart. It follows 
then, that ungodly man can be justified by faith alone. 
As to the nature of justifying faith, we conceive it to be 
"a full persuasion that what God hath promised, he is 
also able to perform. 1 ' (Rom. iv. 21.) The penitent 
sinner hears, that God has promised to " pardon and 
absolve all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly 
believe his holy gospel. 11 By the power of the Holy 
Ghost, he becomes fully persuaded of the reality of what 
he hears, and is enabled to testify, " Christ hath loved 
me, and given himself for me. v Justifying faith is man's 
weakness taking hold on the power of God. " Let him 
take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with 
me : And he shall make peace with me. 11 (Isaiah xxvii. 5.) 
4. We preach the doctrine of good works. We 
preach them in the only effectual way ; because we insist 
on the necessity of making the tree good, before the 
fruit can be good. Every blessing follows in the train of 
pardon. " If any man be in Christ" by justifying 
faith, u he is a new creature ; old things are passed 
away ; behold all things are become new. 11 (2 Cor v. 
17.) " We know, it is a faithful saying, and one that 
we ought to affirm constantly, that they who have believed 
in God, should be careful to maintain good works. 1 ' 
(Titus ii. 8.) For, when saved, " we are called with a 
holy calling ;" (2 Tim. i. 9 ;) and become " a chosen 
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a pecu- 
liar people, shewing forth the praises of God. 11 (1 Peter 
ii. 9.) After faith has been counted to us for right- 
eousness, and we, from being ungodly, as St. Paul speaks, 
become, to use the expression of St. James, " the friends 
of God, 11 we know that by works we are justified ; — that 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 261 

is, continue justified, and " not by faith only." For 
though works cannot justify a sinner, they are, with 
faith, the means of continuing the justification of 
the sons of God. " By works is their faith made per- 
fect. We then do not make void the law through 
faith ; but by that very means we establish the law." 

5. We believe and preach the doctrine of divine in- 
fluence on the mind of man, as the only source of good. 
" We believe in the Holy Ghost." We believe in his 
operations, as well as in his existence. We know that the 
Holy Ghost is God : That He is the dispenser both of 
gifts and grace : (1 Cor. xii. 1 — 13 :) And that the 
work of Christ is not effectual to salvation without the 
the work of the Spirit. It is he who convinces the world 
of sin ; who fills with righteousness, and peace, and joy ; 
who attests to the conscience of man, that he is pardoned; 
who renews, and sanctifies, and guides, and strengthens, 
and saves. He is " the God who worketh all in all." 
And as missionaries, we especially, in all our labours, 
endeavour to remember, that " neither is he that plant- 
eth any thing, nor he that watereth, but God the Spirit 
who giveth the increase." 

6. We believe and preach the doctrine of the eternity 
of future rewards and punishment. We believe that 
there will be " a resurrection both of the just and 
unjust ;" that Christ will be the Judge of all the earth ; 
and that the issue of the awful transactions of the 
judgment-day will be, that the wicked shall go away 
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into 
life eternal." (Matt, xxv. 46.) 

7. All these doctrines we steadfastly believe. " We 
witness both to small and great none other things" than 
those which the Prophets and Moses, and Christ, and the 



262 SERMON VIII. 

Apostles, have declared : And these doctrines we preach, 
not in a laboured, oratorical, manner, "with enticing words 
of man's wisdom," but with great plainness of speech ; 
and so as to " commend ourselves to every man's con- 
science in the sight of God." It is not my intention to 
enter into any defence of these doctrines ; I have 
honestly stated them, and have only to request that you 
will " search the scriptures daily, whether these things 
are so." As to those who believe not in the scriptures, 
it will be no surprise to hear, that they are offended at 
these doctrines; and that they think them calculated to 
produce the most dreadful evils in the world ; especially 
the doctrine of human depravity. But if they admit 
not that doctrine, let them never more complain, that 
the poor are lazy and will not work : Or that men who 
are their equals are always "ready to defraud one 
another." Having explained our doctrines, let me next 
bring before you 

IV. The discipline by which our Societies are go- 
verned. 

1. By the term " Societies," we mean those persons 
collectively considered, who have for the greater part 
been brought to God under our ministry ; and who, 
from a desire of enjoying more fully " the communion 
of saints," have placed themselves under our pastoral 
care; that they may have the privilege of attending 
those means of religious improvement which are esta- 
blished amongst us. Of course there is a considerable 
distinction to be made, between those who are members 
of the Society, and those who only regularly, or occa- 
sionally, worship with us in the public congregation. 
They who hear the word preached only, are not at all 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 26S 

under our rule or government,nor are we responsible for 
their conduct. If they walk disorderly, it is unjust to 
reproach us, because we have no authority over them in 
religious matters. But as it regards our members, who 
have, by uniting with us in church- fellowship, voluntarily 
recognized our right to " admonish them" in the Lorcf ; 
we stand engaged to see that they do by their peaceable 
demeanour, and by the purity of their lives, adorn the 
gospel of God our Saviour. 

2. All our institutions are purely religious : There is 
nothing political in any part of our economy, either as 
it regards ministers or people, or the rules of discipline 
by which we are governed. Of this every one must be 
convinced, who will only take the pains to look at those 
rules, which were first published in 1743 ; and which 
have been before the world from that year up to the 
present day. I cannot do better on this occasion than 
read an extract from them : — " There is one only con- 
" dition previously required of those who desire admis- 
" sion into these Societies, viz., ' a desire to flee from the 
" wrath to come, and be saved from their sins. , But 
" wherever this is really fixed in the soul, it will be 
" shewn by its fruits. It is therefore expected of all 
" who continue therein, that they should continue to 
" evidence their desire of salvation, 

" First. — By doing no harm, by avoiding evil in 
every kind ;* especially that which is most generally 
practised. Such as 

" The taking of the name of God in vain : 

" The profaning the day of the Lord, either by 
doing ordinary work thereon, or by buying or selling : 

" Drunkenness ; buying or selling spirituous liquors ; 
or drinking them unless in cases of extreme necessity : 



5264 SERMON VIII. 

" Fighting, quarrelling, ^brawling ; brother going to 
law with brother ; returning evil for evil, or railing for 
railing ; the using many words in buying or selling : 

" The buying or selling uncustomed goods : 

" The giving or taking things on usury; i. e., un- 
lawful interest : 

66 Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation ; parti- 
cularly speaking evil of magistrates or ministers: 

" Doing to others as we would not they should do 
unto us. 

" Doing what we know is not for the glory of 
God; as, 

" The putting on of gold, or costly apparel : 

u The taking such diversions as cannot be used in the 
name of the Lord Jesus : 

" The singing those songs, or reading those books, 
that do not tend to the knowledge or love of God : 

" Softness and needless self-indulgence : 

" Laying up treasure on earth : 

" Borrowing without a probability of paying ; or 
taking up goods without a probability of paying for them. 

" It is expected of all who continue in these Societies, 
that they should continue to evidence their desire of 
salvation," 

" Secondly. — By J doing good, by being in every 
kind merciful after their power, as they have oppor- 
tunity : Doing good of every possible sort, and as far 
as possible to all men : 

" To their bodies, of the ability that God giveth, 
by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, 
by visiting or helping them that are sick, or in prison : 

" To their souls, by instructing, reproving, and 
exhorting all we have any intercourse with. 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 265 

" By doing good, especially to them who are of the 
household of faith, or groaning so to be : Employing 
them preferably to others ; buying one of another, 
helping each other in business : And so much the more, 
because the world will love its own, and them only. 

" By all possible diligence and frugality, that the 
gospel be not blamed. 

" By running with patience the race that is set before 
them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross 
daily: Submitting to bear the reproach of Christ; to 
be as the filth and off-scouring of the world; and 
looking that men should say all manner of evil of them 
falsely for the Lord's sake. 

" It is expected of all who desire to continue in these 
Societies, that they should continue to evidence their 
desire of salvation : 

" Thirdly, — By attending on all the ordinances of 
God ; such are, 

" The public worship of God : 

" The ministry of the word, either read or expounded : 

" The Supper of the Lord : 

" Family and Private Prayer : 

" Searching the Scriptures ; and 

u Fasting or Abstinence. 

" These are the general rules of our Societies : All 
" which we are taught of God to observe, even in his 
" written word, the only rule, and the sufficient rule 
" both of our faith and practice. And all these, we 
" know, his Spirit writes on every truly awakened heart. 
" If there be any among us who observe them not, 
" who habitually break any of them, let it be made 
" known unto them who watch over that soul, as they 
" that must give an account. We will admonish him 

S 



%66 SERMON VIII . 

" of the error of his ways : We will bear with him for 
" a season. But then if he repent not, he hath no 

u more place among us. We have delivered our own 

" souls. 

"JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY/ 

"May I, 1743:' 

These excellent rules, I am sure, need no comment ; 
they speak for themselves to every candid mind, and 
cannot fail to convince every one, — except such as are 
resolved not to be convinced by any evidence, — that 
there is nothing in Methodism, as to its discipline, 
that can disturb the peace of any community : Unless 
it be a Roman Catholic community, who might, I own, 
fear to find so distinct a recognition of this great Pro- 
testant principle, " The word of God is the only rule ? 
and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice." 

3. The rule which goes to forbid, " The profaning 
of the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work 
thereon, or by buying or selling ;"" may seem to bear on 
the conduct of the slave population of these colonies ; 
and you may desire to know how far we enforce that 
rule in the West Indies. I will plainly tell you ; though 
I will freely acknowledge my fears, that we yield too 
much to your prejudices in this matter. If Christ 
declared, that " not one jot or tittle of the law should 
fail, 1 ' what are we that we should wink at a moral evil, 
because it is mixed up with others that are of a political 
nature ? Does that in any wise lessen its immoral ten- 
dency, or cause it the less to impede the progress of 
Christianity amongst mankind ? But our practice, be 
it right or wrong, is just as follows: No Free Person ? 
who is a member of Society, is allowed to buy or sell 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 267 

any thing on the sabbath-day. With regard to them> 
we enforce the rule in the most rigorous manner. It is 
in vain for any one to plead, " Some things that we 
want, can only be obtained on the sabbath ;" our inva- 
riable reply is, " Then you must do without them ; it is 
better to sit down to a dinner of herbs, than procure 
more agreeable food by purchasing it on the day of the 
Lord." — A Slave, however, who is united to our Society, 
is allowed, both to cultivate his grounds, and to traffic 
on the sabbath-day : We never tell them, that such a 
practice is right, nor do we peremptorily require them 
to abstain from it : leaving this matter to their masters 
and their own consciences. Were we to enjoin them, 
not to labour for themselves, as the sabbath is con- 
sidered their own day ; we do not see how they could 
avoid, except in a few instances, pilfering their master's 
property, to support their own existence, or the existence 
of their families. The attempt positively to remedy one 
moral evil, seems to force them upon another. In such 
a choice of difficulties, conceiving that the fourth com- 
mandment is specially directed to those who hold " men- 
servants and maid-servants •" we conclude, that if esta- 
blished customs necessitate the servants to labour, they, 
not being in their own power, may be graciously for- 
given ; while the accumulated guilt must lie upon those 
who require it at their hands. 

4. In those excellent instructions, with which all the 
Wesleyan Missionaries are furnished, there are some 
special rules added for the government of our Societies 
in the West Indies, adapted to the peculiar circum- 
stances of the slave population, which are not met by 
the general rules already quoted. An extract from those 
instructions will further elucidate our system of disci- 

c 9 



%68 



SERMON VIII. 



pline in these colonies. The Committee who manage 
our missions, thus charge us : — " Those of you who are 
appointed to the West Indies, being placed in stations 
of considerable delicacy, and which require, from the 
state of Society there, a peculiar circumspection and 
prudence on the one hand, and of zeal, diligence, and 
patientj perseverance, on the other, you are required to 
attend to the following directions, as specially applicable 
to your mission there : 

" Where Societies are already formed, you are required 
to watch over them with the fidelity of those who must 
give up their account to Him who hath purchased them 
with his blood, and in whose providence they are placed 
under your care. Your labours must be constantly di- 
rected to improve them in the knowledge of Christianity, 
and to enforce upon them the experience and practice 
of its doctrines and duties, without intermingling doubt- 
ful controversies in your administrations, being mainly 
anxious, that those over whom you have pastoral care, 
should clearly understand the principal doctrines of the 
scriptures, feel their renovating influence upon their 
hearts, and become 'holy in all manner of conversa- 
tion and godliness.'' And in order to this, we recom- 
mend that your sermons should consist chiefly of clear 
expositions of the most important truths of holy writ, 
enforced with affection and fervour on the consciences 
and conduct of them that hear you ; that you frequently 
and familiarly explain portions of the scriptures ; and 
that, as extensively as you possibly can, you introduce 
the method of teaching children, and the less instructed 
of the adult slaves and others, by the excellent cate- 
chisms with which you are furnished. 

"Before you receive any person into Society, you 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 269 

shall be satisfied of his desire to become acquainted with 
the religion of Christ, and to obey it ; and if he has 
not previously been under Christian instruction, nor 
baptized, you are, before his admission as a member, 
diligently to teach him the Christian Faith, and the 
obligations which he takes upon himself by baptism ; so 
as to be assured of his having obtained such knowledge 
of the principles of religion, and such belief of them, as 
to warrant you to administer to him that ordinance. 
Beside this, no person is to be admitted into Society, 
without being placed first on trial, for such time as shall 
be sufficient to prove whether his conduct has been 
reformed, and that he has wholly renounced all those 
vices to which he may have been before addicted. 

" It is enforced upon you, that you continue no per- 
son a member of your Societies, whose conversation is 
not as becometh the gospel of Christ. That any mem- 
ber of Society who may relapse into his former haKits, 
and become a poly garni st, an adulterer, or an unclean 
person ; who shall be idle and disorderly ; disobedient 
to his owner ; (if a slave ;) who shall steal, or be in any 
other way immoral or irreligious ; shall be put away, 
after due admonition, and proper attempts to reclaim 
him from the error of his way. 

" You are to consider the children of the Negroes and 
coloured people of your Societies and congregations, as a 
part of your charge ; and it is recommended to you, 
wherever it is practicable and prudent, to establish Sun- 
day or other schools for their instruction. It is to be 
considered by you as a very important part of your duty 
as a Missionary, to catechise them as often as you con- 
veniently can, at stated periods ; and to give your utmost 

s 3 



270 SEltMON VIII. 

aid to their being brought up in Christian knowledge? 
and in industrious and moral habits. 

" As in the colonies in which you are called to labour, 
a great proportion of the inhabitants are in a state of 
slavery, the committee most strongly call to your recol- 
lection, what was so fully stated to you, when you were 
accepted as a Missionary to the West Indies, that your 
only business is to promote the moral and religious im- 
provement of the slaves to whom you may have access, 
without in the least degree, in public or private, inter- 
fering with their civil condition. On all persons in the 
state of slaves, you are diligently and explicitly to 
enforce the same exhortations which the apostles of our 
Lord administered to the slaves of ancient nations, when 
by their ministry they embraced Christianity : ' Servants, 
be obedient to them that are your masters according to 
the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your 
heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men- 
pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will 
of God from the heart ; with good-will doing service, as 
to the Lord, and not to men : Knowing that whatsoever 
good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of 
the Lord, whether he be bond or free.' (Ephes. vi. 5 — 8.) 
6 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to 
the flesh : Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in 
singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye 
do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men i 
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward 
of the inheritance ; for ye serve the Lord Christ. But 
he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which 
he hath done ; and there is no respect of persons." (CoL 
ill, 22—25. 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 271 

w You are directed to avail yourselves of every oppor^ 
tunity to extend your labours among the slaves of the 
islands where you may be stationed ; but you are in no 
case to visit the slaves of any plantation without the per- 
mission of the owner or manager; nor are the times 
which you may appoint for their religious services to 
interfere with their owners" employ ; nor are you to 
suffer any protracted meeting in the evening, nor even 
at Negro burials, on any account whatever. In all these 
cases you are to meet even unreasonable prejudices, and 
attempt to disarm suspicions, however groundless, so far 
as you can do it consistently with your duties as faith- 
ful and laborious ministers of the gospel. 

" As many of the Negroes live in a state of polygamy, 
or in a promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, your par- 
ticular exertions are to be directed to the discountenance 
and correcting of these vices, by pointing out their evil, 
both in public and in private, and by maintaining the 
strictest discipline in the Societies. No man, living in a 
state of polygamy, is to be admitted a member, or even 
on trial, who will not consent to live with one woman 
as his wife, to whom you shall join him in matrimony, 
or ascertain that this rite has been performed by some 
other minister ; and the same rule is to be applied, in 
the same manner, to a woman proposing to become a 
member of Society. No female, living in a state of con- 
cubinage with any person, is to be admitted into Society 
so long as she continues in that sin. 

" The committee caution you against engaging in any 
of the civil disputes or local politics of the colony to 
which you may be appointed, either verbally, or by 
correspondence with any person at home, or in the 
colonies, The whole period of your temporary resi- 



278 SERMON VIII. 

dence in the West Indies, is to be filled up with the 
proper work of your mission. You are not to become 
parties in any civil quarrel ; but are to please all men 
for their good to edification ; intent upon the solemn 
work of your office, and upon that eternal state, in the 
view of which, the committee trust, you will ever think 
and act.'" 

5. After such large citations from our standing rules,, 
only one thing more is necessary to give you all the in- 
formation that can be desired, concerning our discipline; 
namely, a brief account of the officers that exist in the 
Society, and of the nature of those religious meetings 
which are held for the spiritual benefit of the members. 

Our church-officers are few. First, there are those 
who officiate as ministers of the gospel. Of these there 
are two classes; generally denominated in our con- 
nexion, the Itinerant and the Local Preachers. " The 
Itinerant Ministers" are those who are wholly set apart 
to the work of the ministry : All the. Missionaries are of 
this class, that they may be " at the remotest distance 
from all temptations to a secular, or mercenary temper ; 
and devote all their time and energies to the sacred du- 
ties of their mission." We are called Itinerant Minis- 
ters, because we are not settled and fixed pastors over 
one distinct congregation ; but we itinerate or travel to 
minister to different congregations, within the limits of 
the circuit or island where we dwell ; and because it is 
a part of our system, every two or three years, to remove 
to a new station. " The Local Preachers" are an emi- 
nently useful body of men, subordinate to those who 
itinerate, and employed under their direction. The 
local ministers are lay-men of piety and talents, who 
follow their worldly calling throughout the week ; and 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 273 

on the sabbath-daj, without any temporal reward, preach 
the gospel in the towns and villages of their own neigh- 
bourhood. But this class of ministers, owing to peculiar 
circumstances, does not generally exist in the West 
Indies. 

Next in office to ministers, are the Leaders. Every 
Society is divided into little companies called "classes;" 
there are generally from twelve to twenty persons in 
each class, over whom a j udicious person is appointed as 
leader. It is his duty to watch over the souls committed 
to his care with affection and fidelity ; and if any mem- 
ber of his class walks disorderly and will not be reproved, 
to make the minister acquainted with it, who, in union 
with the rest of the leaders, has authority to exclude 
such an one from the Society. Owing to this arrange- 
ment, it is not possible for any moral evil to be long 
practised by any member, without its being brought to 
light; so that we have the means in our own hands of con- 
tinuing " a holy people," by putting away all that " hate 
reproof," and that will not " amend their lives according 
to God's holy word." 

The next order of men amongst us, is that of Stewards 
and Trustees: These are temporal officers of the Society. 
The stewards receive all monies that are contributed to 
support the ministry, and from them pay to each minister 
his income. No minister in the connexion can hold the 
office of steward, or any other temporal office in the 
Society : He is entirely cut off from the possibility of 
making " gain of godliness." The trustees are men who 
hold the chapels in trust, for the use of the preachers 
appointed from year to year by the Conference. We 
have no other officers than those of Ministers, Leaders^ 
Stewards, and Trustees, known amongst us. 



&74 SERMON VI 1 1. 

As to our religious meetings, one of the chief is the 
weekly class-meeting. At an hour that may be most 
convenient, each leader meets his members. The devo- 
tion of that hour begins with singing and prayer ; the 
leader, next, in a few words, relates his own religious 
experience ; that is, he tells a company of people desir- 
ous of being Christians, of his religious joys or sorrows ; 
in the same manner that a worldly man would talk with 
his acquaintance about his worldly prosperity or trou- 
bles. The leader then questions each individual in order, 
as to the present state of his heart and life ; and gives to 
each instruction, or comfort, as may be required: A 
verse of a hymn and prayer conclude the service. But 
before they part, each member contributes something 
towards the support of the gospel ; but they seldom give 
as much for God's cause, as, before they knew his ways, 
they spent in foolish vanities. The original rule of 
Methodism is, that each member shall contribute, upon 
an average, one penny per week : If any be very poor, 
those who are richer, shall supply their deficiency. 

Once a quarter we have also our love-feasts, which are 
very similar to class-meetings ; only the whole of the 
Society meet together ; and any one of them who 
chooses, is at liberty, without being questioned, to give 
a brief narrative of his conversion to God, and of his 
present religious experience. This mean of grace is 
exceedingly edifying; it constrains us to "magnify the 
Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to 
the children of men." We generally eat bread and 
drink water together, as did the primitive Christians, to 
remind us that we are all of one family : And a collec- 
tion is made, which is afterwards distributed to the poor 
and needy. 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 275 

Society-meetings are occasionally held, after the close 
of a public service, when the minister has an opportunity 
of pointing out any minute evil, that he could not con- 
veniently mention in a public discourse; or of giving 
such instructions and exhortations as he may judge ne- 
cessary to promote Christianity more fully in the hearts 
and lives of the members. 

Prayer-meetings are meetings in which the time is 
employed solely in the delightful exercises of alternately 
singing the high praises of God, and of calling upon his 
holy name. 

Watch-nights are seldom held in the West Indies. 
A Watch-night is simply a continued evening service, — 
a few of our local brethren giving a word of exhortation to 
the people, after the itinerant minister has delivered a 
discourse unto them. 

As to our Sacramental services, they are precisely the 
same as those of the Church of England : We use the 
same form of words ; and we give the elements in the 
same manner, the communicants devoutly kneeling 
round the altar. 

Having thus given you full information as to " our 
disciples and our doctrine," I now proceed to the fifth 
particular, 

V. The manner in which the Missionaries are pre- 
parred for their work. 

1. The Methodists have no academy in which young 
men are trained up for the ministry. It might perhaps 
have been more politic to have withheld this statement ; 
but a Christian man has nothing to do with the wise 
policy of the world : We wish you to know entire Me- 
thodism, therefore we declare to you things as they are. 



276 SiliiMON VIII. 

We have indeed two public schools, one at Kingswood, 
and the other at Woodhouse Grove, in which the sons 
of itinerant ministers are educated : And if any of those 
youths possess piety and talents, and are called of God 
to the ministry, the advantages they have enjoyed in 
those schools, are greater than they meet with in ordinary 
life. But though a few of those young men have been 
called out into the itinerant work at home, I have never 
yet known one of them to become a Missionary to the 
Negroes. 

2. Do we then despise human learning ? By no 
means. We neither despise it, nor are we destitute of it. 
Much prayer to God, and hard study of the scriptures, 
and of works that are calculated to " pay a contribution 
to the scriptures, r> serve instead of a college to Methodist 
preachers. We have men in our Connexion, who, for 
learning and science, have scarcely their equals in the 
British empire : Now it matters little how a man gets 
wisdom, provided he does get it, and consecrate it all to 
the service and glory of the Redeemer. And as to the 
great body of ministers at home, and of missionaries 
abroad ; for good sound sense, for a right understanding 
of the scriptures, and an ability to " speak as the oracles 
of God," they are not inferior to ministers of any deno- 
mination, whether of the Church of England, (which is 
" the mother of us all,") or amongst the various classes 
of Dissenters that have branched out from her. We have 
no made orators ; but we have men naturally eloquent, 
whose " doctrine drops as the rain, and whose speech 
distils as the dew :" We have no logicians trained in the 
vowels of syllogisms, but I trust every man amongst us 
can " speak forth the words of truth and soberness." As 
Missionaries to the Negroes, we come to explain the truths 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. S77 

of the English Bible ; and for that work we are ade- 
quately and naturally prepared by our system of disci- 
pline. For it is a remarkable fact, that though when 
our Societies were originally formed, there was not the 
most distant conception that a Methodist ministry would 
ever exist ; yet the very constitution of those Societies is 
now found to be exactly adapted to the forming and 'pre- 
paring of such a ministry ; and for the calling into 
exercise every talent which any man may have received. 
" This is the Lord^ doing, and it is marvellous in our 
eyes. 1 ' And while our discipline remains, academies 
will be unnecessary for us ; nor do I think, that, as a 
body, we could more miss our way. than by attempting 
to mend what is most evidently the plan of God. 

3. Every Missionary is required to give evidence that 
he is a Christian, before he is sent to teach Christianity. 
If he desire the work before his conversion to God, he is 
not accepted ; he " must tarry at Jerusalem, until he be 
endued with power from on high." Having been some 
time a private member of Society, and having received 
into his heart the salvation of the gospel, and exemplified 
its purity in his life ; and having been useful as a pri- 
vate member, in visiting the sick, teaching in Sunday- 
schools, or any other Christian charity ; if he desire to 
be useful in a more public way, and think that he is 
u moved by the Holy Ghost" to preach the gospel, he 
counsels with some judicious friend, perhaps his leader, 
and with the itinerant ministers of the circuit. Without 
their consent, he cannot take a single step in the work. 
If after examination he be approved, he is recommended 
at the next Quarterly Meeting of the local preachers, at 
which the eldest itinerant minister presides, to be re- 
ceived amongst their body on trial. After being three 



278 SERMON VIII. 

months on trial, at the following meeting he is called 
before his local brethren, and the itinerant ministers, 
and examined in their presence. A report of his labours 
during the three months of probation is made, and how 
far his ministry was acceptable and profitable to the 
people. If, after every necessary enquiry has been in- 
stituted, the majority consent, his probation ends, and 
he is fully recognized as a local preacher of the circuit 
in which he resides. Perhaps he spends the remaining 
part of his honourable and useful life, without giving 
himself up more fully to the service of the sanctuary. 
If however he consider himself called to the itinerant 
work, he must first be proposed by one of the itinerant 
ministers, at a meeting of the local preachers, leaders, 
and stewards, of the circuit where he has resided, for 
their recommendation : Without obtaining their written 
recommendation, he can never be taken out more fully 
into the ministry. To all these persons he is well- 
known ; their eye has been upon his conduct, perhaps 
from the day he entered the Society; or at least, from 
the time of his becoming a public character. If ap- 
proved by them, he is examined at a District Meeting ; 
that is, a meeting of itinerant ministers, from twenty to 
thirty in number, whose circuits are contiguous to each 
other. That examination before that assembly of minis- 
ters, in which one of the eldest presides, relates to his 
piety, his talents, his moral conduct, his freedom from 
debt, his religious principles, his motives, his reading 
and studies while a local preacher, and his willingness to 
devote his whole life unreservedly to the great work of 
saving souls. If every enquiry be satisfactorily answered, 
the recommendation of his circuit is accepted and re- 
corded ; and that recommendation is, through the Dis- 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 279 

trict Meeting, conveyed to the Conference. The 
Conference consists of the hundred oldest itinerant 
ministers in the Connexion. It assembles annually 
in London or Bristol, or in one or other of the large 
towns of England From their number one is selected 
to fill the office of president, which office he holds 
during their sitting, which continues about a fortnight ; 
and also throughout the rest of the year. This 
is the highest office in the Methodist Connexion ; but 
there are no emoluments arising, from it : Nor indeed 
from any one office that is held throughout the 
whole body. With the Conference, many other itine- 
rant ministers meet also ; the general number annually 
assembled is from three to four hundred. Here all the 
the great affairs of the whole body are settled in a regu- 
lar and orderly manner. And here it is that every man, 
designed for the itinerant work, after having undergone 
the examinations already mentioned, is finally proposed ; 
and, if approved, he is received on trial for four years. 
If, at the expiration of those four years, — during each 
of which he is examined as to hi^gconduct, and in parti- 
cular as to his " attendance to reading" and the improve- 
ment of his gifts, — he be found to have lived " holily 
and unblameably,'* 1 and to have given evidence that he is 
"■ a workman that needeth not to be ashamed ;" he is, 
after a final public examination before the whole Confer- 
ence, received and acknowledged as an itinerant minister 
in the Wesley an Connexion. If the final examination be 
not satisfactory, he is continued on trial or dismissed, as 
may judged most expedient; the Conference always 
acting towards him with as much tenderness as the case 
will allow. When a man is fully received into the 
body, however long he may continue in it, his name is 



SERMON VIIi. 

called over, and an enquiry instituted as to his conduct 
during the past year, at every succeeding Conference : 
From this enquiry no man is exempted. 

If, when a young man is proposed to itinerate, he prefer 
the foreign work, and desire to have his name enrolled 
amongst the number of Missionaries ; he is recommended 
in the manner already stated, and committed to the di- 
rection of the Missionary Committee. He is set apart 
as a Missionary, by the laying on of hands, and exhorta- 
tation, and prayer. He is also duly licensed, if he be 
going to a Christian government ; for there itis necessary 
to " tolerate" Christianity. 

Such then is the manner in which we are prepared 
for our work ; and while engaged in it, the same exa- 
minations are observed in our annual District Meetings, 
as would have been attended to, had we remained at 
home ; and a regular report is made to the Managing 
Committee in London, and through them to the Confer- 
ence at its next assembling. 

Let me now explain 

VI. The means by which we are supported. 

1. The whole of our Mission concerns are managed 
by a committee, consisting of the president and seretary 
of the Conference, for the time being ; and forty-eight 
other members : — They are annually appointed by the 
Conference, and act in the name, and on the behalf of 
the Conference throughout each successive year. One 
half of those forty-eight members are itinerant ministers ; 
and the other half lay-men. It is required that thirty- 
two of the number, sixteen ministers and sixteen lay- 
gentlemen, be resident in or near London : Four of the 
latter go out every year by rotation. On the London 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 281 

part of the committee devolve the active concerns of 
the Missionary department, which require large sacri- 
fices of time, and much prayerful care and attention. 
Three of the ministers are annually appointed by the 
Conference as secretaries to the institution. By the 
funds, at the disposal of this committee, and under their 
subordinate direction, the Missionaries are, in the first 
instance, sent out to their stations. 

% At almost every Mission Station, we have a Society 
or Societies formed. Their weekly contribution sin the 
classes, as before stated, as well as their quarterly con- 
tributions, when the minister meets all the classes in 
order, go far towards the support of the ministry, where 
the Societies are large, as in Antigua, and some other 
islands; but where the Society is small, the deficiency is 
very considerable. To promote the same end, we also 
make a public collection once a month in all our chapels. 
.What deficiency may afterwards remain, is supplied 
from the funds of the Mission in England. Those 
funds are raised and replenished in this manner : In 
almost every town and village where Methodism is known, 
a Methodist Auxiliary Missionary Society is organized 
and established. Pious individuals become collectors of 
weekly sums, which their friends and acquaintance may 
subscribe ; and at the anniversary of the formation of 
the Society, those sums are brought together, and 
remitted to the Parent Institution. And on the Sabbath 
preceding, Missionary sermons are preached, and public 
collections made. Occasional liberal donations are given ; 
and sometimes legacies bequeathed to the Institution. 
We also establish Missionary Societies on Mission sta- 
tions ; and thus return a part of the bounty we receive 
from British benevolence at home. Nor have the in- 

T 



SERMON VIII. 

stances of late been few, m which West India propri- 
etors have subscribed annually, or given sums to a consi- 
derable amount, in furtherance of that work in which 
we are engaged. These are the resources of the Society ; 
and from them the ordinary deficiencies, and the various 
incidental expenses of the Missions are supplied. 

3. Let it not, however, be supposed, that, from re- 
sources so abundant, and that will never fail, the Mis- 
sionaries are enriching themselves. Forty years has the 
Mission to the West Indies been established, and there 
has not been an instance of a Missionary becoming 
wealthy, by his labours in this work. It forms no part 
of his intention, it is not even a secondary motive with 
him, to gain wealth, when he first enters on the Mission. 
I believe no Missionary has ever put the question before- 
hand, " What shall I receive for my labour ?" He 
takes it for granted, from the economy of Methodism 
at home, that he will, when abroad, have " food and 
raiment, r) and with that he is satisfied. It forms no part 
of the arrangement of the committee, in preparing a 
man for his station, to enter into any temporal engage- 
ment or stipulations with him : And were he to evince 
anxiety of mind on that subject, it would be at once 
regarded as a full proof, whatever his other qualifica- 
tions might be, that he had not the great Missionary 
pre-requisite, — a deadness to this present evil world. 
While abroad in the work, each Missionary receives a 
moderate allowance, which is barely sufficient for his 
comfortable maintenance ; every man receives his Omer, 
whether the Societies on his station raise little or much : 
" He that gathereth much, hath nothing over ; and he 
that gathereth little, hath no lack." A minute account 
of all the temporal concerns of each station is, every 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 283 

year, required by the committee in London ; and the 
whole is narrowly inspected by a branch of it, called 
" the Committee of Finance." And all the sums that 
are raised, and entrusted to the care of the Manag- 
ing Committee, are annually printed in the Report, as 
well as the whole of the Missionary expenditure; so 
that every Auxiliary and Branch Society can judge, for 
itself, of the fidelity with which the whole of these 
growing concerns are managed. When a Missionary 
returns home, it is expected that the Society amongst 
whom he has laboured will meet his expences as far as 
they are able ; the Parent Institution supplies the rest. 
This is a correct statement of the means by which we 
are supported in our blessed toil. The Lord be praised ! 
No man can become rich by being a Methodist Mis- 
sionary ! The Lord grant that that day may never 
arrive, when any worldly allurement shall be held out, to 
drag men out into a work, upon which the love of Christ 
and of souls constrains them not to enter ! But while 
we ourselves are poor, through the gracious blessing of 
our God we have been the means of making " many 
rich." 

VII. The success which has attended Missionary 
labours. 

1. Religious knowledge has been increased. Half a 
century ago, how awfully descriptive of the mass of the 
population in the West Indies were the words of Isaiah, 
" Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the 
people -:" But we joy to add, " the Lord hath arisen 
upon them, and upon them is his glory seen." " The 
people which sat in darkness have seen a great light ; 
and to them which sat in the region of the shadow of 

t 2 



284 SERMON VIII. 

death, light is sprung up." Light has arisen in Chaos 
itself; it hath " shined out of darkness ;" it is reducing 
all things to order and beauty ; and, in time, the con- 
tending gloom shall disappear before the lustre of its 
glory. Sunday Schools are established in almost every 
West India town: And thousands of children are 
taught to read the word of God. A few years more^ 
and every child within our sovereign's Western Domi- 
nions, we trust, will be " able to read the Bible." 
Catechetical instruction is becoming extensively useful, 
to the mass of the adult population, as well as to the 
rising generation. The word of God sounds from island 
to island : And tens of thousands have heard of a 
Redeemer in the land of their captivity, and have called 
the day happy, that ever they became British slaves ! 
The knowledge communicated by these means is of the 
best kind. — It is safe knowledge ; it endangers not the 
peace of communities. That man is a reproach to the 
religion he professes, who, calling himself " a Chris- 
tian, 1 ' yet conceives that the knowledge of Christianity 
would be injurious to society. — It is cheering know- 
ledge. 

Soft peace it brings wherever it arrives, 
It builds our quiet, as it forms our lives ; 
Lays the rough paths of peevish nature even, 
And opens in the breast a little heaven. 

It is improving knowledge ; it does good to all classes 
of men ; it makes a kinder master, and a more obedient 
slave ! 

2. Morality has been promoted. Look at the con- 
duct of religious slaves on the Sabbath-day, imper- 
fectly as they are able to observe it, and you will see 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. %&$ 

how the " little leaven is leavening the whole lump." 
Unable to attend the house of God every Sabbath, on 
their labouring Sunday, and other occasional hours, 
they are quickened to industry, by the hope of being 
able on the following Sabbath to worship in the sanc- 
tuary. In the midst of the market and bustle of the 
town, what a sight is it to behold crowds who have been 
serving God, in cleanly garments, returning from the 
sacred place that has been to them as the gate of heaven i 
None of them are seen drunken in the street ; none of 
them engage in petty broils and quarrels with their fellow 
slaves ; but in a peaceful and orderly manr*er they retire 
to their estate, or their habitation. A principle of honesty 
is implanted in their hearts on the day of the Lord, that 
operates throughout the week ; and in the midst of 
temptation, whether arising from poverty, or want, or 
covetousness, the slave remembers that he has heard, 
" Let him that stole, steal no more: But rather let him 
labour, working with his hands the thing that is good, 
that he may have to give to him that needeth." Mar- 
riage, with the sacred blessings that follow in its 
train, has been introduced ; and thus Christianity has 
created a new order of relations that before had no exist- 
ence in society. The operation of its benefits may be 
slow, but they are progressive. And they spread " from 
the least to the greatest." Marriage, that has been so 
strenuously insisted on, in regard to the once Pagan, 
but now Christian slaves, is becoming much more fre- 
quent among those to whom they belong, or by whom 
they are "governed. And it certainly is a remarkable 
fact, that in those colonies where the Missions have most 
flourished, the general standard of morals is most raised 
amongst the high and influential classes of society; 

t 3 



286 SERMON VIII. 

while in those islands where Missions have languished, 
there has been a retrogradation of morals, and a sinking 
more deeply into vice of every kind. — Missions then are 
a general blessing. They come in continual contact 
with moral evils ; and though the struggle may some- 
times be obstinate and desperate ; yet in the end those 
evils give way, and a voice is heard proclaiming, 
" Behold ! I make all things new !" 

3. Souls have been saved. " After this I beheld, and 
lo! a great multitude, which no man could number, of 
all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood 
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud 
voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb." (Rev. vii. 9, 10.) O 
what a joyous thought, that many ah African Negro is 
found amongst that multitude ! Judging from what I 
have beheld in other colonies, I am fully persuaded that 
many hundreds of them have already gone to glory. 
Yea, and I have seen a Christian slave die happy in 
Barbadoes ! And I know a few that are now living 
happy in the enjoyment of the Divine favour, and who 
are preparing for " the inheritance of the saints in light." 
The day of eternity only will unfold the extent of those 
benefits, which, directly and indirectly, have been wrought 
by the efforts of Missionaries in these islands. The 
good that has been accomplished, we trust, is the pre- 
lude of a much mightier and more general moral change; 
giving us to see, that, whatever may be the civil condi- 
tion of mankind, in the church of God " there is neither 
Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barba- 
rian, Scythian, bond nor free; but that Christ is all in 
all." 



METHODISM EXPLAINED. 287 

4. " By whose labours have all these boasted good 
effects been produced ?" — " Boasting is excluded i™ It is 
God's work from first to last. " Not unto us, Not unto 
us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory, for thy 
mercy, and for thy truth's sake." But the instruments 
employed, and owned of God, have^been chiefly of two 
classes : First. The Moravian brethren, " whose praise 
is in all the churches :V Their ministry of the word has 
been very greatly and extensively blessed to the salva- 
tion of many souls. God grant that the glory may 
never depart from them ! — Next to them, God has made 
the Methodist Missionaries of general utility in the 
colonies. Doubtless " we are fools for Christ's sake, 
but ye are wise in Christ ; we are weak, but ye are 
strong ; ye are honourable, but we are despised." We 
are poor, ignorant, illiterate, unlearned men. But look 
at the result of the labours of these illiterates ! Look 
at their flourishing Societies ! Look at their congrega- 
tions ! Look at the multitudes they have been the 
means of " turning from darkness to light, and from 
the power of satan unto God !" And seeing that you 
are far superior to them in wisdom, let reason teach you, 
that the more weak and insignificant the employed 
agents appear, the stronger is the argument that ought 
to force from every beholder the admiring exclamation, 
" What hath God wrought !" — " We have been 
throughly manifest among you in all things." (2 Cor. 
xi. 6.) " We will not boast of things without our mea- 
sure, but according to the measure of the rule which 
God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even to 
you." (2 Cor. x. 13.) 

5. While we are able to adduce innumerable instances 
of real, solid, and lasting good that* has resulted from 



288 SERMON VIII. 

our labours, who is able to bring forward any proof of 

evil that has resulted from them ? A thousand times 
we have heard it affirmed, that Methodism is a danger- 
ous system ; but where are the facts that establish the 
point ? We boldly aver, that, in the whole history of 
the West India Mission, not one single fact can be pro- 
duced to prove it ! As to those therefore who are 
alarmed at the spread of Methodism, how descriptive 
are the words of the Psalmist, " There were they in 
great fear, where no fear was !" (Psalm liii. 5.) As to 
those who oppose it, let them consider that "if this 
counsel or this work had been of men, it would have 
come to nought" before this period ; " but since it is of 
God, they cannot overthrow it ;" and that, while'they 
attempt it, they are clearly " fighting against God." As 
to all those who are really candid inquirers into the truth 
of things, we trust the impartial statement that has been 
given of every part of our system will prove satisfactory ; 
and cause them to say Amen to the prayer with which 
this discourse shall close : — " Make us glad according to 
the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years 
wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear" unto 
thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And 
let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us ; and 
establish thou the work of our hands upon us ; yea, the 
work of our hands establish thou it." 



SERMON IX. 
ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, 



Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christy he is none of his. — 
Rom. viii. 9. 

A Christian is one who follows Christ, and whom 
Christ approves. The name was originally given to 
those who were previously known by the appellation of 
" disciples," or scholars. Their conformity to Christ 
could not be hidden from the world ; men " took know- 
ledge of them that they had been with Jesus. " Of him 
they had " learned to be meek and lowly in heart ;" for 
meekness and lowliness are the distinguishing excellen- 
cies of the Christian character. 

Christianity is the same in every succeeding age. It 
is a " pure and undefiled religion ;" " pure 11 in its origin, 
and, in its progress, " undefiled 11 by the corruptions of 
the world. Man indeed has " sought out many inven- 
tions, 11 and many superstitious rites and ceremonies have 
been mixed up with its outward profession ; but those 
human additions are not Christianity, nor do they in 
reality change its nature. It still continues an unalter- 
able truth, that the " kingdom of God is not meat and 
drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
Ghost." " The kingdom of God is within you. 11 None 
but those who bear the image of the Saviour, who copy 
his example, and who live under the influence of the 



290 SEltMON IX. 

Holy Ghost, are recognized by Christ as belonging to 
him. " Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, 
he is none of his." 

We shall endeavour to explain 

I. What is meant by that phrase, " the Spirit of 
Christ ;" and what by " having" that Spirit. 

II. Adduce the evidences by which it may be known 
to the world that we possess it : And 

III. Shew the awful condition of those who are des- 
titute of it. 

I. 1. The context will help us to explain the meaning 
of this phrase, " the Spirit of Christ." — " But ye are not 
in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of 
God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit 
of Christ, he is none of his." The same Person who in 
this latter sentence is called the Spirit of Christ, is, in 
the former, denominated, " the Spirit of God ;" in both 
places we are to understand the expression as referring 
to God the Holy Ghost. This is so exceedingly clear, 
from the frequent mention of his influences throughout 
the chapter, as to need no further proof. 

That divine and eternal Spirit is called " the Spirit of 
Christ," because he is given unto the sons of men by vir- 
tue of the Redeemer's death, and resurrection, and ex- 
altation at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 
Christ especially promised that gift to his disciples, in his 
last discourse with them before his death ; and he made 
known to them, that the Spirit should be sent from the 
Father, through his own intercession on their behalf: 
" I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another 
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ; even 
the Spirit of Truth." And again, " The Comforter,. 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 291 

the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to 
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 
(John xiv. 16, 17, 26.) On the day of Pentecost, Peter 
was enabled to testify, that these promises had been 
fulfilled : " Therefore Christ being by the right hand of 
God exalted, and having received of the Father the pro- 
mise of the Holy Ghost, hath shed forth this which ye 
now see and hear*" (Acts ii. 33.) 

It is the special office of the Holy Ghost, to glorify 
Christ in the world. It was he who inspired the pro- 
phets, " who prophesied of the grace that should come 
unto us" through the Redeemer ; so that they employed 
themselves in " searching what, or what manner of time, 
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when 
it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the 
glory that should follow/' (1 Peter i. 10, 11.) And 
now, when he accompanies the preaching of the everlast- 
ing gospel with power to the heart, " he convinces men 
of sin, because they believe not in Christ ;" (John xvi. 
9;) and when the convinced sinner believes with the 
heart unto righteousness, it is through the power of the 
Spirit, by whom he calls Jesus Lord. " God then 
sends forth the Spirit of his Son into his heart, crying, 
Abba, Father /" (Gal. iv. 6.) " Of him," says the apos- 
tle, that is, of God the Father who is the fountain of all 
goodness, are ye "in Christ Jesus, who of God [the 
Spirit] is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and 
sanctification, and redemption.' 1 In this manner is the 
word of promise accomplished : " He shall glorify me ; 
for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 
All things that the Father hath, are mine : Therefore 



292 SEllMON IX. 

said I, that he shall take of mine, and shew it unto you." 
(John xvi. 14, 15.) 

For these reasons is the Spirit of God called, in the 
scripture now before us, the Spirit of Christ. 

2. What are we to understand by " having that 
Spirit?" The context will enable us to answer this 
inquiry in a clear and satisfactory manner. "Butye,'' 
says the apostle, " are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, 
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any 
man have not the Spirit of Christ,'" that is, if he have 
not that Spirit dwelling in him, " he is none of his." 
Now he only dwells in the heart of obedient believers. 
He strives with all men ; but he manifests the Father in 
the Son, unto those that love Christ and keep his com- 
mandments, "in a manner thathe does not unto the world." 
" They are the temples of the living God : as God hath 
said, 1 will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will 
he their God, and they shall be my people" (2 Cor. vi. 
16.) To have the Spirit of Christ, therefore, is to re- 
ceive him as he is promised in the gospel unto all believers. 

He dwells in them as the Spirit of Faith. " Ye are 
all the children of God," says St. Paul, " by faith in 
Christ Jesus " (Gal. iii. 26.) But « Faith is the gift of 
God ;" faith is bestowed when the Holy Ghost is given. 
" After that the Holy Ghost is come upon" a penitent 
sinner, who has been " waiting for the promise of the 
Father," he "receives power" to "take hold of the 
strength" of the Redeemer, and thereby to " make peace 
with him." He is then " sealed with that Holy Spirit 
of promise :" And if he " grieve not the Spirit of God," 
he is enabled from that day forwards to testify, " I live, 
yet not I, but Christ," by the indwelling of the Holy 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 298 

Ghost, " liveth in me : And the life which I now live in 
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
me, and gave himself for me. 1 ' (Gal. ii. 20.) As it is 
written again : " The just," or justified, " shall live by 
faith." Thus the Holy Spirit dwells in every christian's 
heart, enabling him to exercise that faith by which he con- 
tinues in that state of grace, orfavourwith God, into which 
he was first introduced, when God was "merciful to his 
unrighteousness, and remembered his iniquities no more. 11 
His holy influence keeps faith alive, by frequent appli- 
cation of the divine promises to the soul ; and by daily 
manifestations of God to the heart. And especially in 
the hour of trial and temptation, he " suffers not faith to 
fail ;" but, in a wonderful manner, strengthens that 
grace in the christian, that it may be "found unto 
praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus 
Christ.' 1 

The Holy Ghost dwells in all believers as the Spirit of 
adoption. " Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father ! The Spirit itself bear- 
eth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of 
God." (Rom. viii. 15, 16.) Here the apostle speaks of the 
•witness of the Spirit as inseparable from adoption ; so 
that, without that witness, the filial relation can have no 
existence. In like manner we hear the apostle testifying 
in a parallel passage : — " Because ye are sons, God hath 
sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, 
Abba, Father F (Gal. iv. 6.) What the witness of the 
Spirit is > it is no difficult matter to understand, if the 
mind be at all enlightened in the things of God. The 
word " witness 1 ' has no new, mysterious, extraordinary 
meaning attached to it; only God the Spirit is the wit- 
nesser to the Spirit of man. Of course, in the very na- 
ture of things, it must be a direct witness : And there 



294 SERMON IX. 

would have been no need of the emphatic explanatory 
term, if imperfect christians, who have not yet had their 
day of Pentecost, had not attempted to explain away 
the vitality of the doctrine, by putting a new and forced 
sense upon the phrase that is used to describe it. What is 
it to " bear witness ?" Is it to reason upon a case, and 
to draw certain conclusions from admitted premises ? 
By no means : — That is inference, but it is no witness at 
all. To " bear witness," is to testify a known fact, with 
the intent of removing any doubt or uncertainty about 
it. Now the witness of God^ Spirit, is God himself tes- 
tifying, to the spirit of a believer, this fact, that he is a 
child of God. Even the witness of our own conscience, 
from the very circumstance of its being a witness, is 
direct and immediate ; and not the result of comparison 
and argument. This is so manifestly the case, that when 
St. Paul is only speaking of the Heathen, he says, "Their 
conscience also bears them witness ; their thoughts the 
mean while accusing or else excusing one another :" That 
is, in the very act of transgression or of obedience to 
their law, conscience bears its testimony for or against 
them, in the thoughts of their mind. So also the chris- 
tian, — who is enabled to declare, " Our rejoicing is this, 
the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and 
godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the 
grace of God, we have had our conversation in the 
world," — does not obtain that testimony by deduction ; it 
is a natural attendant on his actions as they flow, a mo- 
mentary consciousness that all his words and works are 
acceptable to God. And so the witness of the Spirit is a 
testimony from the Holy Spirit, to the spirit of every 
one who walks with God, that he pleases him. The 
witness of our own conscience accompanies that of the 
Spirit, agreeably to the words of St. Paul, "My con- 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 295 

science also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost :" 
(Rom. ix. i:) And to the expression of St. Peter : "The 
answer of a good conscience toward God :" (1 Peter 
iii. 91.) " The answer" — as echo answers to the voice. 

Universal experience shows, that the witness of our 
conscience must be subordinate to, and dependent on the 
witness of the Spirit. For of those who deny his wit- 
ness, and seek to come at a knowledge of their being the 
children of God solely by inferring that they are such, 
none can be found, who are, by that means alone, assured 
of their sonship. After all their pains, it is to them a 
doubtful matter : And they are full of uncertainty and 
fears, all their life through, as a just punishment for 
their unbelief. " If ye will not believe, how can ye be 
established ?" If ever they have gleams of light, and 
gracious visitations, when the consolations of God are not 
small ; is it not when the Holy Spirit compassionates 
their weakness, and, notwithstanding those prejudices 
which so peculiarly dishonour him, does testify to their 
hearts, that " now are they the sons of God ?" In fine, 
if " a man can receive nothing, except it be given him 
from heaven ;" much less can he receive so great a bles- 
sing as a knowledge of adoption, unless it come from 
God. What earthly father is there that refuses to own 
his child ? And shall not our heavenly Father own us 
as his sons ? " If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your 
heavenly Father, give the Holy Spirit," to witness that 
filial relation, " to them that ask him ?" (Luke jfxi. 
13.) It is by this means that he becomes " the Comforter." 
This is " the common salvation" of all that believe. 

He dwells in believers as the Spirit of holiness. His 
constant admonition to the sons of God, is : " Be ye 



296 SERMON IX. 

therefore imitators of God as dear children." " Be ye 
therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven 
is perfect. 1 "' Hence " they walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit,'" " Through the Spirit they mortify the 
deeds of the body ; and being the sons of God, they are 
led by the Spirit of God." He who has sealed pardon 
on the heart, and regenerated the soul, continues 
" to work in them to will and to do of his good 
pleasure, making them perfect in every good work." 
He sanctifies them more and more. Their " souls are 
purified in obeying the truth, through the Spirit, unto 
unfeigned love of the brethren." The " incorruptible 
seed of the word of God, lives and abides for ever" in 
those " honest and good hearts which bring forth fruit 
with patience." (1 Peter i. 22, 23 ; Luke viii. 15.) It 
is true, holiness exists in christian believers in different 
degrees ; because after they have been " saved by grace," 
very much depends on their own faithfulness. "To him 
that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abun- 
dantly." But all in whom the Spirit of Christ abides, 
as the Comforter, are saved from the power and love of 
sin ; they are enabled to overcome it, and they daily 
" grow in grace, and in the knowledge of their Saviour." 
Their " faith groweth exceedingly," till their " love is 
made perfect," and till they so "abound in hope by the 
power of the Holy Ghost," as to be enabled to " give 
thanks unto the Father, who hath made them meet to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." 

Thus we see that the phrase in the text, to " have 
the Spirit of Christ," signifies, to have the Holy Ghost 
dwelling in the heart, as the Spirit of Faith, the Spirit 
of Adoption, and the Spirit of Holiness. We propose ? 
Secondly, 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 297 

II. To adduce the evidences by which it may be known 
to the world, that the Holy Ghost dwelleth in us. These 
evidences are three, — holy tempers, holy words, and 
holy actions. 

1. Holy Tempers. " The fruit of the Spirit," says 
St. Paul, " is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : Against such 
there is no law." (Gal. v. 22, 23.) Of these several 
fruits of the Spirit, which are found in every Christian 
believer, we shall briefly speak, that you may perceive 
more fully the real excellency of the Christian cha- 
racter. 

" The fruit of the Spirit is Love." This the apostle 
justly places first, as it is the chief of all Christian graces. 
It is the perfection of all the rest ; yea, in love they are 
all included. He who has the Spirit of Christ, feels " the 
love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost 
given unto him." " Being justified freely by grace," 
and made a partaker of " salvation by the remission of 
sins," he cannot forbear crying out with an apostle, 
" Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he 
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our 
sins." " We love him, because he first loved us." And 
whosoever hath the love of God, loves his neighbour 
also. He loves not only his kindred and friends, but all 
mankind, not excepting his enemies ; and he is willing 
to " do good to all men, but especially to them who are 
of the household of faith." O excellent principle of cha- 
rity ! It is the most humbling of all graces. Nothing 
so much abases the soul as the love of God. Yet nothing 
so much exalts it ; for hereby we are made " partakers 
of the divine nature." " God is love ; and he that 
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." 

U 



298 SEllMON IX. 

Where love is, there must be happiness. Hence the 
second fruit of the Spirit is Joy, — Joy that is of divine 
origin, and therefore called "joy in the Holy Ghost." 
Every one "joys in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," 
when he has " received the atonement," — the inestimable 
benefits of the Saviour's passion. This joy does not 
arise from any thing outward, such as worldly comfort, 
prosperity, and honour; nor is it dependent on any out- 
ward circumstances for its continuance : But it springs 
from a clear sense of the divine favour in the heart ; 
from the blessed assurance of being a child of God, and 
an heir of God through Christ Jesus. It is sometimes 
so abundant, that the believer can " rejoice with joy un- 
speakable, and full of glory f Nor is it in the power of 
" manifold temptations" to destroy it ; for even then, in 
the midst of them, and while he feels their oppression, 
he is enabled to " count it all joy, that he has fallen into 
those divers temptations, knowing," from the present 
support that is given, that "the trying of his faith 
worketh patience." If he be faithful, he shall never 
lose his joy ; but it " shall be full ;" it " shall remain, 
and none shall take it from him." Unfaithfulness makes 
sorrowing Christians. 

The possession of joy necessarily implies the posses- 
sion of Peace : " A peace that passeth all understand- 
ing," guarding and fortifying the powers of the soul 
against all the assaults of Satan, and keeping them calm 
and undisturbed in the midst of " the strife of tongues," 
or the violence of " wicked and unreasonable men." It 
suffers not those tumultuous passions which frequently- 
disquiet the heart of a sinner to enter, or to reign. 
Where the Spirit of the living God dwells, " hate, envy, 
jealou sy are gone." Man is no longer influenced by a 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 299 

hostile disposition toward his fellow-men. He breathes 
universal good- will ; and " follows after peace with all 
men, and holiness, without which no man can see the 
Lord." 

Long-suffering accompanies peace. M Unto every 
Christian it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to 
believe on his name, but also to suffer for his sake." It 
is impossible but this should be the case, so long as there 
are unconverted men in the world, who are under the 
influence of a " carnal mind which is enmity against 
God," and against his cause. Reproaches, if not stripes 
and imprisonments, will fall to their share ; and " men 
will say all manner of evil against them falsely for the 
Lord's sake." Nothing will be counted too vile and 
wicked to lay to their charge, if it will only serve to ren- 
der them odious and contemptible in the eyes of the 
world. But these " false accusations," and whatever 
else the providence of God may permit to occur, the 
Christian bears with " long-suffering ;" with a love that 
is " not provoked to render evil for evil, or railing for 
railing, but contrariwise blessing." 

A Christian is so far from being moved to anger by 
provocations, however great, or however long-continued, 
or however often-repeated, that trials of that kind, do 
only serve to exhibit to the world the excellency of ano- 
ther fruit of the Spirit, — Gentleness. He endeavours 
to imitate the example of Christ, who " was led as a Lamb 
to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so he opened not his mouth :" That is, he never 
spake in any sinful manner; he paly mildly reasoned 
with his enemies : " If I have spoken evil, bear witness 
of the evil ; but if well, wherefore smitest thou me ?" 
The " gentleness of Christ" will not allow of any expres- 

u 2 



300 SERMON IX. 

sions bordering on contemptuous severity ; but requires 
that the whole speech and behaviour be mild, and per- 
suasive, and affectionate, and kind. Such was the con- 
duct of Christ, when the Jews clamoured for his blood ; 
and though his fcC gentleness" did not soften down their 
prejudices, or lessen their bitter cries of, " His blood be 
on us, and on our children !" yet, after his resurrection, 
it became a mighty means of confirming the doctrines he 
had taught, and of recommending the Christian religion 
unto all mankind. 

While the Christian imitates so excellent a pattern of 
gentleness, he is also full of Goodness. " The Greek 
word," says Mr. Wesley, " means all that is benign, 
soft, winning, tender, either in temper or behaviour." It 
constrains him who possesses it to beam forth pity, in 
his very looks, towards the fallen race of Adam ; and to 
tell them, by his countenance, how his bowels of com- 
passion move towards them. In performing his duty, 
and fearlessly reproving sin in every shape, wheresoever 
and in whomsoever he meets it, goodness prevents every 
thing like censoriousness, rudeness, and roughness of 
behaviour. If goodness, or a tender concern for the wel- 
fare of immortal souls, will not permit a Christian to 
suffer sin in his neighbour, if it constrain him to use the 
sword of reproof; it both smooths and sharpens the 
edge, and thereby often causes it to be successful in de- 
stroying the sin at which it is aimed. 

Where there is goodness, there is also Faith, or 
fidelity. He who has received the Spirit of Christ will 
evidence in his whole life fidelity towards God ; carefully 
improving every talent which has been committed to his 
trust, remembering the awful account he must one day 
render to the Judge of quick and dead. Nor will he the 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 301 

less manifest fidelity towards man ; never betraying the 
confidence which his fellow-creatures may repose in him ; 
never dealing treacherously in any concern ; but, in all 
those affairs which others may entrust to his manage- 
ment, acting with the same zeal and punctuality that he 
would have done had those affairs been his own. 

Meekness is another fruit of the Spirit ; another holy 
temper evidenced by every Christian. All his affections 
and passions are well-regulated : Meekness controls and 
directs the whole. Meekness is love in its most engaging' 
form. It is a grace that is always necessary ; since a 
thousand things will occur to call it into exercise, not 
only in the world, but in our families, and in the church 
of God. Meekness is entirely opposite to anger, and 
peevishness, and pride ; it enables a man to hear, to for- 
bear, and to forgive. 

Lastly follows Temperance ; a virtue that is some- 
times commended, but seldom practised. Yet it is found 
in whomsoever the Spirit of Christ dwells. By him, 
moderation will be observed in eating, in drinking, in 
his desires, and in his hopes, and in every thing that 
relates to the present world. Temperance destroys, 
root and branch, all softness and needless self-indul- 
gence, all love of delicacies and of gay and expensive 
apparel ; and it teaches a man to deny himself of every 
thing that is not a means of his getting and doing 
good. 

Now if any man have the Spirit of Christ, all these 
fruits of the Spirit will be in him and abound. Not 
some merely, to the exclusion of the rest, but the whole 
train of graces will exist in the heart ; and especially 
love, which is the bond and perfection of all the rest. 
Bad tempers are utterly inconsistent with Christianity ; 

u 3 



302 SERMON IX. 

and he enjoys not the salvation of God, who is not de- 
livered from them. Thou sayest thou hast the Spirit 
of Christ : " But wilt thou know, O vain man,'' 1 that 
while thou hast not " the mind that was in Christ," thou 
" deceivest thine own heart, and thy religion is vain ?" 
How wilt thou profess to have the Spirit of God dwell- 
ing in thee, when the fruits of the Spirit are not found ? 
Is it not written ?, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also 
walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain 
glory, provoking one another, envying one another." 
" Be not then deceived ; God is not mocked : For what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." — But 
another will say, "I thank God I have the fruits described 
dwelling in me." Then thou must be a child of God ; 
for none can be " imitators of God," but those who are 
his " dear children." If thou really hast those fruits, 
thou must have the witness of the Spirit : For the two 
blessings are inseparable. And in proportion to the 
clearness of your evidence of the favour of God, will be 
the vigour of those graces which can flow only from a 
consciousness of his favour. What ! Shall a man be able 
to discern that he hath " love, joy, peace," and so on ; 
and yet not know that he has " received the Holy 
Ghost," who is the only Source of love, joy, and peace ? 
How can he enjoy this " love," if God be not his Fa- 
ther ; or this joy, if God be not reconciled ; or this 
peace, if he be not in the divine favour ? And shall 
the Spirit be " divided against himself," dwelling in the 
heart to produce those fruits, and yet keep him ignorant 
of the filial relation that exists between God and the be- 
lieving soul ? Shall we set the Spirit as the Comforter, 
in opposition to the Spirit as the Spirit of Adoption ? O 
how injurious is it to vital Christianity, to hold only one 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. SOS 

half of the truth of God ! It is one of the deepest stra- 
tagems of Satan, although so many are ignorant of his 
devices, to spread the notion in the Christian church, 
that it is possible to have the fruits of the Spirit, with- 
out the witness of the Spirit that we are born of God. 
Hence many rest far beneath their privileges ; and 
because they sometimes feel a degree of love, and joy, 
and peace, when they are under " the drawings of the 
Father," mistake that preparing influence from God, for 
the " love, and joy, and peace 1 ' of Christian believers : 
Hence while those drawings continue, they infer, what is 
not really true, that they are the children of God ; but 
when those drawings are less sensible, and their comfort 
is gone, they iiifer that perhaps they are not the chil- 
dren of God, and are full of doubts and fears. Now all 
this Jewish Christianity, so to speak ; (if that be not too 
honourable a name for itj and does not convey too strong 
an idea of the actual condition of those who rest in it ;) 
this Jewish Christianity arises from not honouring the 
Spirit, by maintaining it to be absolutely essential to the 
Christian character, that he should " bear witness to our 
spirits, that we are the children of God." No danger- 
ous, consequences can follow from scripturally exhibiting 
this privilege of all the saints ; nothing would so directly 
tend to increase the purity of the Christian church ; 
nothing would so powerfully operate to the promoting 
of "lovely tempers" in them that call Jesus, Lord; 
and those tempers would convince the world, better than 
all our arguments and reasonings, that God had really 
" cleansed the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration 
of his Holy Spirit, enabling us perfectly to love him, 
and worthily to magnify his holy name." 

i2. Holy words are another proof to the world, that 



304 SERMON IX. 

we have the Spirit of Christ. " Out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh." " All thy works 
shall praise thee, O Lord ; and all thy saints shall bless 
thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, 
and talk of thy power ; to make known to the sons of 
men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his 
kingdom." (Psalm cxlv. 10 — 12.) A Christian man 
will take every opportunity of recommending Christ to 
his fellow-creatures ; and it will be his glory to exalt 
the name of the Redeemer, by " ordering his conver- 
sation aright" in the world. His conversation will 
always be " as becometh the gospel of Christ ;" chaste, 
pure, simple, holy, and devout. On the Lord's day, 
especially, he will be careful not " to speak his own 
words, or to think his own thoughts :" Throughout that 
day, it shall appear as though he were constantly breath- 
ing forth the prayer, " Hallowed be thy name !" And 
in the ordinary tenor of his life, when the duties of his 
station require him to speak of earthly things, still his 
mind is heavenly, and a savour of Christianity runs 
through all his converse, which evinces the purity of his 
heart, and the devotedness of his soul to God. Being 
'? filled with the Spirit," it is natural to him to be " giving 
of thanks always for all things unto God and the Father 
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." " The word of 
Christ dwells in him richly in all wisdom ;" so that he is 
enabled to offer up every " word," as well as deed," " in 
the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, and 
the Father by him." His spiritual and heavenly conver- 
sation amongst men, is an evidence to the world, (al- 
though his words may not be pleasing to the ungodly,) 
that in him the Spirit of God dwells. 

3. Holy actions are seen in his life. It cannot surely 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 305 

be necessary to insist upon it, as an incontrovertible 
truth, that every one, who has the Spirit of Christ, is 
free from immorality. That is self-evident. For an 
adulterer, a fornicator, a Sabbath- breaker, a drunkard, 
a liar, a blasphemer, or any such character, to pre- 
tend to have the Spirit of Christ, is so glaring an absur- 
dity, so contradictory to the whole tenor of scripture, so 
shocking to common sense, that it would be a waste of 
time to combat with such an idle dream. We know 
whose they are, whom they serve, and to whom they 
belong. " They are of their father the devil, for his 
works they do." " Know ye not," says Paul, " that his 
servants ye are, to whom ye yield yourselves to obey, 
whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righte- 
ousness ?"~This last phrase, obedience unto righteous- 
ness, is exactly descriptive of the character of a Chris- 
tian's obedience. Proceeding as it does from the grace 
of the Spirit who abides in his heart, it is holy and 
acceptable to God the Father, through the mediation of 
Jesus ; and is therefore a means of continuing his pre- 
sent righteousness, or justification ; and, because of that 
obedience, " a crown of righteousness shall be given to 
him in that day, when every man shall be judged accord- 
ing to his works." The Christian is the only man on 
earth who can perform " good works ;" for they only 
who " are saved by grace, through faith," are the 
" workmanship of the Spirit, created in Christ Jesus 
unto good works." But all who are " predestinated 
through Jesus Christ, unto the adoption of sons," are 
pure indeed, for they are " holy and without blame 
before God in love." Their works all spring from the 
purest principle, — " love to God and man :" They 
are directed to the noblest end, — the glory of God, and 



306 



SERMON IX. 



the happiness of the whole world. — He who has the 
Spirit of Christ, is just in all his actions; he "wrongs 
no man, he defrauds no man." He never " borrows 
without a probability of paying ; or takes up goods 
without a probability of paying for them." In trade 
and business, he has no reserves, no equivocations, no 
double-dealing, nor does he think himself at liberty to 
make the best of every bargain ; but in every case he 
doth what is right, because he exceedingly loves that 
law, — " all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them." He is benevolent ; 
for justice is the basis of all his charities : If a man 
have the Spirit of Christ, he cannot shut up his bowels 
of compassion against his fellow men. He is all ^z/<?and 
ear, and hand, to the miseries of the human race; nor 
can he think of hoarding up wealth, so long as there are 
widows and orphans, and the poor, the afflicted, and 
the destitute existing in the world. If he be poor, he is 
charitable in poverty; and often finds a brother-man, 
to whom he says, " Thy necessity is yet greater than 
mine." He is an universal philanthropist, a holy pa- 
triot ; he is a blessing to his country, and a blessing to 
mankind. You see Christ in his actions, for he " walks 
as Christ also walked ;" and like his Lord and Master, 
" he glorifies God on earth, till he has finished the work 
he hath given him to do." 

4. These being the evidences by which it may be 
known to the world, that we have the Spirit of Christ, I 
beseech you to consider how far they are conspicuous 
in your character. If the scripture rule be, " By 
their fruits ye shall know them ;" what are the fruits 
you bear ? Are you Christians indeed ? Would Christ 
own you, if he were upon earth ? Are you filled with 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 307 

the love of God and man ? Does it constrain you 
earnestly to pray for the salvation of your fellow-crea- 
tures ? Do you ever pray for yourselves ? Are you 
happy ? Does your " soul magnify the Lord, and 
your Spirit rejoice in God your Saviour ?" Or are you 
miserable, gloomy, and melancholy ? Have you " the 
peace of God which passeth all understanding, keeping 
your heart and mind through Christ Jesus ?" Or have 
you " no peace ?"" Are you " long-suffering, gentle, easy 
to be intreated," meek, and lowly, and temperate in all 
things? Or are you soon angry, revengeful, proud, 
haughty, high-minded and puffed up with vanities? 
Are you " holy in all manner of conversation and godli- 
ness ?*" Or are you carnal in heart, in lip, and in life ? 
Are you honest, sober, chaste, faithful ? And in all 
your outward conduct, do you pursue mercy, justice, 
and truth ? Or are you impure and unholy, sacrificing 
right to interest, and regarding time much more than an 
approaching eternity ? In one word : Does Christ 
Jesus dwell in you by his Holy Spirit ? Or are you 
" without God, and without hope in the world ?" 

These questions are all of the utmost importance. 
On the manner in which they are determined, your 
everlasting happiness or woe depends : — For, says the 
apostle, " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he 
is none of his." 

III. The awful condition of him who is without the 
Spirit of Christ. 

1. Christ disowns him in this present life. Even now 
" he is none of his,"" — does not truly belong to him. 
He cannot belong to Christ, because he is always griev- 
ing and resisting the Holy Spirit. To grieve the Spirit 



308 SERMON IX. 

is to reject Christ, and to refuse his salvation. Christ 
is now exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on 
high ; we • know him after the flesh no more ; he is no 
longer seen as the man of sorrows, humbling himself, 
and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross ; but he comes unto us by the Spirit, whom he 
sends forth to convince and save the world. He who 
receives not that Comforter, receives not the Saviour 
who sent him, nor the Father who promised him ; nor 
shall he have any share in those peculiar privileges and 
blessings which are bestowed upon all believers. See 
how the apostle connects the character and the bless- 
ings in 1 Cor. iii. 91 — 23. " All things are yours ; — 
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or 
life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all 
arc yours ; and ye are Chrisfs ; and Christ is God's." 
Every thing therefore depends on being Christ's ; he who 
has not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him, is neither 
Christ's disciple, nor God's son. He has no " redemption 
through the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins ;" no 
" comforts of the Holy Ghost ;" no " exceedingly great 
and precious promises, making him a partaker of the 
Divine nature ;" he has no holiness, no happiness, no 
hope of glory. Neither has he any interest in that 
special intercession which Christ makes for his own fol- 
lowers : " Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast 
given me, be with me where I am ; that they may 
behold my glory." Nor will the Saviour ever thus 
plead for him, unless he receive " the renewing of the 
Holy Ghost," and, by his gracious power, be begotten 
again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead." 
Now is it not a sad thing, to be disowned by Christ 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 309 

himself? By that Saviour in whose name we have been 
baptized, whom we call Lord, and whose religion we 
profess to believe? What avails it to call ourselves 
" Christians," if Christ says, Ye are none of mine! 
" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they 
follow me : And I give unto them eternal life ; and they 
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them 
out of my hand." But who are ye? Ye "hear not 
my voice" in my Spirit, neither do ye " follow me" in 
the regeneration ;" nor hath " my Father given you to 
me," as my sheep : But u I know you, that ye have not 
the love of God in you ; inwardly ye are ravening 
wolves. Ye are known by your fruits." — So then, 
" they are not all Israel, which are of Israel ; neither, 
because they are the seed of Abraham," or Christians 
in name by natural descent, " are they all children," 
the adopted sons of God : " But in Isaac shall thy seed 
be called." That is, they which are the children of the 
flesh, these are not. the children of God : But " the 
children of the promise," — those who " receive the pro- 
mise of the Spirit through faith," (Gal. iii. 14.)—" are 
counted for the seed." (Rom. ix. 6—8.) But they who 
have not that Spirit of Faith, though they boast, " We 
have Abraham for our father," are none of Christ's. 

2. Christ will disown them in the day of judgment 
In that day he would be ashamed of them ; ashamed to 
confess them as his disciples, before the Father and the 
holy angels. If he were then to claim them as his own, 
he would destroy all distinction between good and evil ; 
and it could no longer be enquired, — " What fellowship 
hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? And what 
communion hath light with darkness ? And what concord 
hath Christ with Belial ?" But who can suppose, that a 



310 SERMON IX. 

child of the devil, who has lived and died in the service 
of Satan, and without the love of God, shall be " num- 
bered with all the saints in glory everlasting ?" Christ 
hath put a mark upon his own, he hath sealed them 
with his Holy Spirit ; and the motto of that divine sig- 
nature reads, " The Lord knoweth them that are his. 
Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart 
from iniquity." They became thus " sealed with that 
Spirit of promise, 11 " sealed unto the day of redemption, 11 
when they believed on Christ, and found pardon through 
his name. And, if they " grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
God, 11 by " trusting to their own righteousness, and 
committing iniquity, 11 the impression of that holy sealing 
will be discoverable in the day of the Lord, and Christ 
will joy to recognize them as those that " called, and 
chosen, and faithful. 11 But they who are unfaithful, 
and " without holiness, 11 because the Spirit of Christ 
dwelt not in them, shall be numbered with " the workers 
of iniquity. 11 They shall be brought to the judgment- 
seat, as the enemies of Christ ; — deemed his enemies be- 
cause of their having continually " done despite unto the 
Spirit of grace. 11 God will be the avenger of all such ; 
and they shall find that it is a fearful thing to fall into 
the hands of the living God ! He then who is not saved 
by the Spirit of Christ in this present life, shall be 
doomed to eternal perdition by Christ, when he comes 
to judge the world in righteousness. 

3. It is of great importance to consider thoroughly 
the universality of this truth : " If any man have not 
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 11 It matters not 
what his outward condition may be ; whether he be rich 
or poor, wise or ignorant, bond or free. "In every nation 1 '' 
where the gospel is preached, " he that feareth God" 






OF HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 311 

with a filial fear, and " worketh righteousness" through 
the power of justifying faith, is " accepted of him ;" but 
whosoever hath not an obedient " faith in the Son of 
God, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
him." Every one ought to seek God in the means of 
grace, and strive to live unblameably in the world; and 
whosoever thus sincerely follows the light he has at 
present, without resting in a mere form of godliness, 
shall find that light increasing more and more, till he 
" sees the salvation of God :" " To him that hath, more 
shall be given." u If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." But, on 
the other hand, — though a man be moral in his general 
deportment in the eyes of the world : (For he cannot be 
moral in the sight of God while he has not faith in our 
Lord Jesus Christ,) — though he regularly attend the 
house of God, — and though he pray, and fast, and com- 
municate on all proper occasions, — yet if he rest there ; 
and receive not the Holy Spirit to lead him into all 
truth, bringing to his heart the enjoyment of pardon and 
purity, verily he shall have no inheritance in the king- 
dom of Christ and of God. 

O that those of you who are resting in the form of 
godliness without the power, would lay these things to 
heart ! Even many publicans and harlots shall enter 
into the kingdom of God before you, because it is so 
difficult to convince you that you are not fit for that 
kingdom already. The truth however is, that you have 
no " meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light :" 
You no more belong to Christ than did the Scribes and 
Pharisees of old; for, notwithstanding you bear the 
Christian name, you have drunk into their spirit, 
and are exactly imitating their conduct. Those ordi- 



312 SERMON IX. 

nances which should lead you to Christ, are most awfully 
perverted; by mistaking the means for the end, you 
make them hindrances to the salvation of your soul. 
Nay, it is well if you do not consider all that has been 
advanced about receiving the Spirit of Christ as mere 
enthusiasm, and disbelieve the whole from beginning to 
end. In your zeal against enthusiasm you do not per- 
ceive that the very existence of Christianity depends on the 
continued influences of the Holy Ghost amongst the sons 
of men. The agency of " the Lord the Spirit" is as neces- 
sary still to preserve it in the world, as it was to establish 
it in the days of the apostles : Yea, it is more necessary ; 
for in the apostles' days, the only opposing parties were 
" Jews and Greeks ;" but now a host of Christians rise 
up, in every land, to deny the work of the Spirit in the 
soul of man. Seeing then that miracles have ceased, or 
are of rare occurrence in these years of unbelief, and 
that we have not the gift of tongues, nor the power of 
smiting with blindness every "Elymas, who, " being full 
of all subtlety and mischief, seeks to pervert the right 
ways of the Lord ;" what could preserve the Christianity 
of the New Testament from being completely over- 
turned, but the mighty power of that Spirit, who through- 
out " the last days, continues to be poured out on all 
flesh ?" By the conversion of sinners the Holy Ghost 
refutes the arguments of philosophers ; and by "saving 
them that believe" He daily " destroys the wisdom of the 
wise, and brings to nothing the understanding of the 
prudent." Yet to them it happens according to that 
awful scripture : " Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, 
and perish I For I work a work in your days, a work 
which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare 
it unto you." (Acts xiii. 41.) 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. SIS 

5. But why should any of you perish through unbe- 
lief ? Why should you not believe, and see the salvation 
of God ? Is any thing too hard for the Lord ? Is it 
a thing beyond his power to give the Holy Spirit unto 
the sons of men ? And if he be able, is he not willing 
to grant us this inestimable blessing ? Has he not actu- 
ally bestowed the grace of his Spirit upon you all ? Are 
ye not yourselves witnesses for God, that there is still a 
Holy Ghost poured out upon the world ? Whence pro- 
ceed that light which has sometimes shone upon your 
understanding, and those convictions that have occasion- 
ally smote your conscience ? Did you produce them by 
your own power ? Try : Re-produce them now ; call 
for light and let it now shoot a new ray across the mind, 
and for conviction that you may now feel a new pang 
of sorrow, if these things be at your own command ? 
But if they come from God, then know indeed that the 
kingdom of God hath come nigh unto you. And shall 
God the Spirit have access to the human mind occasion- 
ally to convince of sin, and shall he not be able to con- 
vert the soul ? Then we cannot possibly be saved. 
Then would it be rational to " spend our days in grief, 
and our years in sighing, 1 ' because we were not born in 
the favoured age of the apostles ; and we ought to rend 
our garments through despair, when we open the Bible, 
and read what multitudes had their " sins blotted out, 
when Jesus Christ was preached unto them," while we 
can never hope for that salvation, the converting power 
of the Spirit having been confined to one age and to one 
generation ! But if the Spirit can now convert the soul, 
what should hinder him from converting you ? " Behold, 
now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of sal- 
vation." " Repent and believe, every one of you, in the 

X 



314 SKltMON IX. 

name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the pro* 
mise is unto you, and to all that are afar off, even to as 
many as the Lord our God v ,shall call." 

6. Have any of you received the Holy Ghost as " the 
Spirit of bondage unto fear ?" Let me encourage you 
to wait for the consolation of Israel. It is the office of 
the Spirit to glorify Christ ; the more you renounce self, 
and strive to come to Christ as a guilty sinner, the more 
will that Spirit help your infirmities, and the sooner 
will he bring you to that Saviour who is exalted to par- 
don and save all that are lost and undone. Give your- 
self up wholly to the Divine Spirit, that he may " work 
in you to will and to do of his good pleasure ;" and it 
shall not be long before " the Lord whom you seek will 
come suddenly to his temple," pardoning and cleansing 
the soul, and choosing it for his own habitation. And 
of your heart he will say, " This is my rest for ever : 
Here will I dwell, for I have desired it." 

7. Finally. Let all those in whom the Spirit of Christ 

dwells, be thankful for the "great salvation 1 ' they enjoy; 

and let them " walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith 

they are called." " Much will be required, where much 

is given." Be careful, then, that ye " receive not the 

grace of God in vain." Purpose in your heart faithfully 

to improve all the gracious influences with which you 

may be favoured ; and believe in God for all the help 

that may be needful to enable you to accomplish what 

you so fully design. Resolve to be a Joshua, or a 

Caleb ; though thousands around you fall short of the 

promises through unbelief. The Spirit of Christ dwells 

in you to accomplish all the promises of Christ ; that is 

the very end for which he is sent : You have, therefore, 

the Promiser himself pleading for you in heaven, and the 



ON HAVING THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 315 

Agent, who is to " bring them all to pass" abiding in the 
heart. O then " walk in the Spirit ;"" — " live in the 
Spirit ;" — " he filled with the Spirit :" Be holy, be always 
diligent, and be ever expecting to u receive abundantly 
above all that you can ask or think, according to his 
power who worJceth in you." And " the God of peace, 
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that 
great Shepherd of the sheep, will, through the blood of 
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every 
good work to do his will, working in you that which is 
well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to 
whom be glory for ever and ever." Amen. 



x2 



SERMON X. 
LAZARUS' RESURRECTION. 



And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come 
forth! And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with 
grave-clothes : And his face xvas bound about with a napkin. Jesus 
saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go John xi. 43, 44. 

Theiie is a fine prophecy in Hosea, relative to the 
Redeemer of the world. "I will ransom them from 
the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death. 
O death, I will be thy plagues ! O grave, I will be thy 
destruction V 

When the prophet uttered this prediction, he had the 
field of slaughter in full view. He saw " Samaria made 
desolate" by war; and calamities of the most terrible 
kind had befallen her inhabitants. Her warriors had 
perished "by the sword ;" her " infants had been dashed 
in pieces ;" her pregnant women and the fruit of their 
womb had been destroyed together, in the most cruel 
and barbarous manner. In the midst of such a scene, 
death is beheld as keeping his carnival, and rioting 
amongst the slain. But in the height of his triumphs, 
with the prey between his teeth, and heaps of the dying 
and wounded all around him, he is met by our Re- 
deemer, who first declares his purpose to ransom the 
captives, and then accosts the victor with a lofty pro- 



LAZARUS' RESURRECTION. 317 

phecy of his final and utter overthrow: "O death, 
I will be thy plagues ! O grave, I will be thy 
destruction !" 

It is impossible, without a paraphrase, to express all 
the sublime ideas which are contained in the original 
text.* You will observe, the word is plural, — " thy 
plagues." It is as though the Redeemer had said: — 
" I will combine all pestilences together in one, to sweep 
thee away at a stroke, at a single word, O grave ! I will 
be nothing less than thy destruction, thine extermi- 
nation, thine entire excision ; no vestige of death, nor 
of his empire over immortal man, shall remain." 

St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, applies 
this prophecy to the final resurrection of the just in the 
judgment-day. He sees the " last enemy" expiring 
under those plagues, and exultingly exclaims, " O 
death, where is thy sting ?" He beholds the prison 
houses of the tyrant demolished, and triumphantly 
inquires, " O grave, where is thy victory?" 

But before that day arrives, the sacred history pre- 
sents us with a few instances of the Redeemer's power 
over the grave, which may be regarded as a figure of 
that resurrection which is yet to come. Enoch and 
Elijah he translated to heaven. He raised the daughter 
of Jairus from death ; and the son of the widow of 
Nain. And he raised Lazarus from the grave, even 
after he had seen corruption. He performed these 
miracles, that his disciples might be encouraged in 
suffering, and in death, to commit the keeping of their 
souls and bodies unto him in well-doing, as unto a 
faithful Creator ; and that the Jews might, be more 
deeply impressed with those awful words which he had 

* Hosea xiii. 14., *mv y®p tin mo -pn 'n« 
x3 



318 SERMON X. 

uttered while ministering amongst them : " Marvel not 
at this ; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are 
in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, 
— they that have good unto the resurrection of life, — 
and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of 
damnation. " 

To the history of Lazarus' Resurrection, I would 
now direct your attention, endeavouring 

I. To illustrate the facts recorded : And 

II. To apply those doctrines arising from them, or 
connected with them. 

I. The facts of Lazarus" Resurrection. 

1. The first thing which requires our attention is,— 
the family whose history is recorded, with the place of 
their abode. " Now a certain man was sick, named 
Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister 
Martha." (Verse 1.) 

The family consisted of three individuals, — Mary, 
and Martha, and Lazarus. Martha was probably the 
elder sister, on which account the chief care of the 
household devolved upon her. In Luke x. 38, we read 
that Martha received the Saviour into " her house." It 
does not appear probable, from the Evangelist Luke's 
account, that Lazarus at that time abode with his 
sisters, though, from his being here called a Lazarus of 
Bethany" we may conclude that he had been for some 
considerable time residing in the same town with them. 
It was, perhaps, Lazarus' affliction that brought him 
under his sisters' roof, that their kind care and attention 
might contribute to render effectual the means employed 
for his recovery. 

This family possessed genuine piety. They cordially 



LAZARUS' RESURRECTION. 319 

believed in Christ, as the true Messiah. Mary and 
Martha exhibited such proofs of faith in the Godhead 
and power of Christ, in those conversations which they 
had with him after the death of their brother, as 
are scarcely paralleled in the gospel history. They 
exceedingly loved the Redeemer ; and honoured, and 
reverenced, and served him most cheerfully, and with 
all the heart. Their piety was deep, yet unobtrusive ; 
those excellent women seem to have been " keepers at 
home." Piety was the source of every virtue ; and its 
influence was the means of preserving domestic happi- 
ness uninterrupted. 

They were an affectionate family. No jealousies, no 
disputes interrupted their peace ; nor, when Christ 
visited them, was there any ambition which should be 
the greatest. They were happy in each other's society, 
ministered daily to each other's necessities, and shared 
alike in each other's sorrows and joys. How tenderly 
the sisters loved Lazarus, is manifest from the depth of 
sorrow evidenced at his death. Mary especially felt 
most exquisitely : And when " she arose hastily, and 
went out" to meet Jesus, the Jews, who had witnessed 
her grief, concluded, " she goeth unto the grave, to 
weep there." (John xi. 31.) What an amiable sight is 
a loving, Christian family ! " How good and pleasant 
a thing it is, to behold them dwelling together in unity." 
Let us every one strive, in our respective stations in 
life, to promote family peace, and love, and harmony ; 
each one living for the good of those within his own 
circle, and endeavouring to spread the influence of reli- 
gion, as the only means of correcting the evils, and of 
alleviating the sorrows, attendant on our condition in 
this lower world. 



3£0 SEllMON X. 

The family was "given to hospitality.'''' Diligent in 
the management of their temporal concerns, and, as it 
regards themselves, frugal in their expences, they were 
enabled to entertain our Lord with great generosity, 
and to provide more plenteously than he desired. And 
if Martha, who was " cumbered about much serving," 
is not, in that respect, an example for imitation ; she is 
worthy of being followed in that personal attention 
which she gave to her domestic concerns. No family is 
well-regulated, where the mistress of the household 
neglects her duty. To reproach servants for careless- 
ness, is then too often the only method of apologizing for 
her own want of diligence, or of prudence, in managing 
her affairs. This was not the case with Martha ; if she 
really had domestics, which is not certain, she was not 
above putting forth her own hands to labour ; nor are 
we to suppose that Mary was of an indolent turn, be- 
cause, on a special occasion, she chose to avoid the 
extreme of carefulness in which Martha indulged, and 
preferred sitting at the feet of our Lord: 

This family was highly esteemed by Jesus Christ. 
"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." 
(Verse 5.) In his journey to and from Jerusalem, he 
dwelt at their house. Highly favoured family ! To 
have for a guest, not merely a prophet, or an " angel 
entertained unawares," but Jehovah, the Lord of all, 
" God, manifest in the flesh." What benignity shone 
forth in his countenance ! What grace flowed from his 
lips ! What dignity of love was conspicuous in all his 
actions ! What prayer ascended to heaven, when He, in 
whom all the families of the earth are to be blessed," 
led their devotions, and by his example " taught them 
how to pray to his Father and to their Father, to his 



lazarus' resurrection. 321 

God, and their God !" — Let us rejoice to know that 
though we have not the bodily presence of Christ with 
us, still he is willing by the Holy Spirit to reveal him- 
self to our hearts. If, like Mary, and Martha, and 
Lazarus, we believe on him, he will love us, and come 
unto us, and make his abode withais. He will conse- 
crate every room in our habitation with his blessed pre- 
sence, so that our ordinary dwelling may with propriety 
be called, Beth-El, The House of God. Let us give 
up ourselves to his service, and thereby invite him to 
our abode ; knowing that he always dwells with truly 
Christian families, and on them " commands his bles- 
sing to rest, even life for evermore." 

This family was considerably above poverty and indi- 
gence : They seem to have been placed in comfortable 
and respectable circumstances by the providence of God. 
Had not this been the case, Martha could not have pro- 
vided so abundantly for the entertainment of our Lord. 
Nor could Mary have procured, after Lazarus' resur- 
rection, " a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, 
wherewith to anoint the Saviour's feet." (John xii. S.) 
The value of it, according to the calculation of Judas, 
was " three hundred pence :" That is, about nine 
pounds, fourteen shillings. The cost of the ointment 
evidently proves, that the family was not poor. Those 
who died in indigence were interred in some common 
burial place ; but the rich had their own private sepul- 
chres, or tombs. It is observed by the Evangelist, 
concerning Joseph of Arimathea, in whose " own new 
tomb, hewn out in the rock" the dead body of our 
Saviour was laid, that he was "a rich man." (Matt, 
xxvii. 57 — 60.) And this happened agreeably to the 
prophecy of Isaiah : " And he made his grave with the 



322 SEKMON X. 

wicked, and with the rich in his death." (Isaih liii. 9.)* 
Lazarus likewise had his own tomb ; it " was a cave,'" 1 
and, as was customary, "a stone lay upon it ;" (John xi. 
38 :) That is, was placed at the mouth or entry of the 
cave. Hence, when we consider the apparent circum- 
stances of the family, we shall not be surprised to find, 
that, instead of being obscure and unknown individuals, 
they were very generally known and highly esteemed ; 
so that, at the death of Lazarus, not only the villagers 
of Bethany, but " many of the Jews from Jerusalem 
also, came to comfort Martha and Mary concerning their 
brother." (Verse 19.) 

Now it is of considerable importance to "keep in 
memory" the outward circumstances of the family, and 
the circle in which they moved, because it affords an 
illustration of the infinite wisdom of God, in selecting 
such an individual, as the subject of the greatest miracle 
performed by the Messiah in the days of his flesh. In 
itself considered, it would have been as great a miracle 
to have raised a poor beggar, as to have raised so respect- 
able a man as Lazarus from the dead. But the design 
of Christ would not have been equally answered, which 
was, to give the Jews the most undeniable evidence of his 
Messiahship by the mighty works that he performed. 
Here was no opportunity for a caviller to object, 
that any collusion subsisted between the parties. La- 
zarus was a man well known. The reality of the miracle 
was unquestionable. The eye-witnesses of it were some 

* Or rather: " And his grave irv tias given" or appointed, to have 
been with the wicked" — the malefactors with whom he suffered : So his 
enemies designed ; but that kind of humiliation being unnecessary, the 
providence of God frustrated their intention, and so ordered it, that he 
was " with the rich in his death." 



LAZARUS' RESURRECTION. S9S 

of the principal persons from Jerusalem itself. The 
chief priests dared not attempt to invalidate the fact, 
nor even to question Lazarus about it, as they had done 
the "man who was born blind." (John 9-)— But when, 
instead of yielding to the irresistible conviction that 
Jesus was the Messiah, they were more than ever deter- 
mined on his death, and " sought to put Lazarus to 
death also ;" (John xii. 10,) they were in great justice 
abandoned to their own invincible prejudices, and ob- 
stinate unbelief : " Therefore they could not believe, 
because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their 
eyes, and hardened their heart, that they {should not see 
with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be 
converted, and I should heal them." (John xii. 39, 40.) 
The same wise arrangement of providence appears in 
regard to the place where the miracle was performed. It 
was at Bethany, a town nigh unto Jerusalem, about two 
miles, or fifteen furlongs off. Had the miracle been 
wrought in Galilee, some of the sceptics of Judea might 
have pretended to question it, on account of the distance 
of places, ^and because of the general contempt in which 
the Galileans were held. Had it been performed in Je- 
rusalem itself— considering, on the one hand, the rooted 
hatred of the Chief Priests against Christ, and their de- 
termination to accomplish his death, — and on the other 
hand, the extraordinary- sensation in his favour which such 
a miracle would probably have produced in the minds of 
the turbulent populace, — the most dangerous conse- 
quences might have followed, which the enemies of Christ 
would not have failed to improve, by representing him 
as one who " stirred up the people." Christ, therefore, 
raised Lazarus from the dead, at a small town not far 
distant from Jerusalem, where a good number might be 



324 SERMON X. 

present as undoubted witnesses of the fact, without afford- 
ing his enemies the least possibility of justly accusing 
him of being guilty of sedition. It is true, the wisdom 
and prudence of Christ did not prevent his enemies from 
alledging that such was his crime ; for when Pilate would 
have acquitted him, " they were the more fierce, saying, 
He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, 
beginning from Galilee to this place." (Luke xxiii. 5.) 
Yet, in the eyes of all unprejudiced Jews, it must have 
been clearly manifest that " he had done no violence, 
neither was any deceit in his mouth. 11 (Isaiah liii. 9-) 

God, therefore, who " determines the bounds of our 
habitation, 11 had, in the order of his providence, cast the 
lot of Mary and Martha at Bethany, and brought Laza- 
rus thither to sicken and die, with a view to the perform- 
ance of this miracle, that he might therein shew forth the 
glory of his incarnate Son. There is a wonderful con- 
nection in all the events of the lives of eminently pious 
characters. If they never miss their providential way, 
Christ gives unto them two special proofs of his favour 
and love. — First, He chooses for them the pkce of their 
habitation, appointing in what city, or town, or village 
they shall dwell, with a view to his own glory in their 
present and eternal happiness ; although, as in the case 
of Martha and Mary, it may sometimes be a habitation 
of affliction. — Secondly, By his spiritual presence he 
gladdens their hearts in the home he has chosen, teaching 
them " in whatever state they are, therewith to be con- 
tent, 11 and encouraging them to hope for eternal felicity 
with himself in the world to come. Thus the cloudy 
pillar leads them to the lot of their inheritance ; and then 
its glory dwells upon their blest abode. If we live and 
die where God wills, and as he wills, we must be happy. 



LAZAUUS" RESUIiRECTION. 325 

We see this remark exemplified in the next prominent 
part of this history. 

2. The circumstances of Lazarus' death. 
Itr was not sudden and unexpected ; for Lazarus was 
" sick :" (Verse 1 :) And his sickness was of some con- 
tinuance ; for his sisters at length sent unto Christ, say- 
ing, " Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick. 11 (Verse 
3.) And after Christ had received that message, he still 
" abode two days in the same place where he was," (verse 
5,) until he knew that Lazarus was dead. These cir- 
cumstances were all wisely permitted by the providence 
of God, that, the previous affliction of Lazarus being 
currently known, there might be no room left to doubt 
the reality of his death. Some of the Pharisees did not 
believe, concerning one to whom Christ gave sight, that 
"he had been blind," (John ix. 18,) until they were 
forced to admit the fact ; much less then would they have 
credited the resurrection of Lazarus, if his death had 
been sudden ; for they would have made use of such a 
circumstance to insinuate the suspicious nature of the 
miracle which our Lord might have wrought. Lazarus 
was afflicted ; and at length he died ; both his affliction 
and his death being made subservient to the Redeemer's 
glory. 

" Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his 
saints." As throughout life he measures out their afflic- 
tions, and disposes of every event relating to them, in 
infinite wisdom and goodness ; so does he in an especial 
manner order the circumstances of their last affliction, 
when they are about to be gathered unto their fathers. 
He knows best when, where, at what age, in what man- 
ner, and by what means, to remove them from earth to 
heaven. In their last moments he will lay no more upon 



32(j SERMON X. 

them, than they shall be enabled to bear ; for he will 
especially then " remember that they are dust," when 
they are about to return to the dust from whence they 
were taken. " How excellent is thy loving kindness, O 
God ! Therefore the children of men put their trust 
under the shadow of thy wings.'" 

Lazarus' death was peaceful. Jesus said unto his 
disciples, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." (Verse 11.) — 
"Our Friend !" What an endearing expression ; and 
how strongly does it mark the condescension of the Son 
of God ! He is not ashamed to call a sinful worm his 
friend ; no, not in his lowest state of degradation, when 
" the body is dead because of sin." It is a common 
friendship which Christ has with all the saints ; and 
which all the saints have with him, and with each other. 
It springs from the purest love. It is friendship of the 
most exalted kind. It is begun on earth ; it cannot be 
dissolved by death ; it shall be perpetuated throughout 
eternity. Lazarus " slept in Jesus." He died as he 
had lived, steadily believing in Christ, and therefore "his 
end was peace." He calmly resigned his spirit to God ; 
and it seems, without any violent struggle with the last 
enemy, he entered into that " rest which remaineth for 
the people of God." Thousands, yea, [tens of thousands, 
have been blest with an end quite as peaceful as Laza- 
rus had. And thou, O christian believer, shalt be one 
more added to the number ! Live to God, and God will 
take care of thee in a dying hour. A violent^wind may 
drive the chaff away ; but the wheat shall be carefully 
gathered into the garner. Though we know not the 
time of our death, yet let this be our rejoicing, — that 
" for us to live is Christ, and to die is gain." 

But though Lazarus was the friend of Christ, and his 



LAZARUS 1 RESURRECTION. 327 

end was peace, still to liis relatives and friends it was a 
sad and deeply afflictive event. When affectionate Tho- 
mas heard of it, his soul clave unto the soul of his de- 
ceased brother, and he said to his fellow-disciples, " Let 
us also go that we may die with him."^(Verse 16.) Martha 
and Mary wept at Jesus 1 feet : each of the sisters relieved 
the sorrows of her heart in the same words ;— in words 
which they had perhaps several times repeated in con- 
doling with each other : — " Lord, if thou hadst been 
here, my brother had not died." (Verses 21—32.) Mary's 
tenderness of heart was deeply affecting: When she 
was weeping, prostrate in the dust at the feet of our Lord, 
the Jews who followed her could not forbear weeping 
also; nor could Jesus refrain from sympathy, without 
forcibly restraining the feelings of his compassionate 
heart. The sight of so much sorrow touched him to the 
quick : " He groaned in the Spirit, and was troubled ;" 
and, with a tremulous voice, tenderly inquired, "Where 
have ye laid him?" Martha and Mary, glad to visit the 
tomb where lay the remains of so dear a brother, said to 
him, with unutterable feelings of grief, "Lord, come and 
see!" The broken sentence went to the heart of our 
compassionate Saviour : — " Jesus wept." Nor were his 
tears few, for his distress was so deep, that the Jews 
could not forbear exclaiming, " Behold, how he loved 
him !" 

If then Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, and his 
sisters also, though they firmly believed in a future re- 
surrection ; it is lawful for us to weep at a parent's, or 
at a brother's grave. We ought to sorrow, but " not as 
those without hope." Christianity neither destroys, nor 
lessens, the sensibilities of the heart ; but it regulates 
and sanctifies them all. The decease of friends ought to 



328 SEHMON X. 

be the spring-tide of grief; because we then see in their 
degradation, and feel in our loss, the deplorable conse- 
quences of sin. Our natural tears ought to be mingled 
with tears of penitence and humiliation before God, on 
account of our fall in Adam. Then shall we find, that 
it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the 
house of feasting; and our chastened sorrow shall prove 
a great means of weaning us from the present world, of 
promoting spirituality of mind, and of increasing in our 
hearts that " holiness without which no man shall see 
the Lord," If, like Martha and Mary, we mourn over 
bereavements at the feet of Jesus Christ, they will assu- 
redly be sanctified, and we shall not be without conso- 
lation. The interest which Christ feels in the sorrows 
and losses of his disciples, is apparent from a third par- 
ticular in this history : 

3. The Saviours visit to Bethany ; his conversation 
with the sisters of Lazarus ; and their journey to the 
tomb. 

Christ's visit to Bethany on this occasion was pecu- 
liarly seasonable in regard to himself. The time of his 
ministry on earth was drawing to a close. He knew that 
the hour of his sufferings and sacrificial death was at 
hand: How highly proper then was it, — before he so 
humbled himself as to become obedient unto death, even 
the death of the cross, and submitted to lie for three days 
as under the arrest of death in his own dominions, — that 
he should demonstrate to the world his own power over 
death and the grave, and thus shew that, even in his 
humiliation, he was Lord both of the dead and of the 
living. 

Nor was it less seasonable in regard to his disciples. 
The arraignment of their Master at the bar of Pilate, his 



lazarus" resurrection. 329 

cruel mockings and scourgings, his crucifixion and death, 
were sad and mournful events, calculated to shake their 
confidence in him, and to disappoint those expectations 
of his approaching kingdom which they had so long che- 
rished. The effect which his humiliation produced on 
their minds, is apparent from the words of Cleopas, 
when journeying to Emmaus: — " We trusted that it had 
been he which should have redeemed Israel." (Luke 
xxiv. 21.) Yet the recollection of Lazarus' resurrection, 
which they had beheld only a few days before, must have 
tended to buoy up their hopes, and to preserve them 
from utter despair. Even when Christ was entombed, 
while Lazarus was living with them, as one of their as- 
sociates, could they absolutely doubt of his being the 
Messiah ? 

But the special object which Christ had in view, in 
undertaking this visit to Bethany, was, to sympathize 
with the afflicted, and to comfort them in the time of 
distress. The conduct of Jesus on this occasion exhibits 
the most perfect model of friendship. It is true, Christ 
could have prevented the sorrows of his friends, by re- 
storing Lazarus to health, instead of suffering him to 
die ; but we must remember, that he is God, as well as 
man, and will, therefore, do that which is best ultimately; 
always connecting, in his comprehensive view, time 
with eternity. He saw that it would be abundantly 
more for the glory of God, to raise Lazarus from the 
dead, than to restore him from sickness. His resurrec- 
tion was a means of bringing glory to God in both 
worlds, at the same moment of time. " The spirits of 
the just made perfect" saw, with unutterable joy and 
gratitude, to what degree they were " made perfect" in 
the cheerfulness with which the disembodied spirit of 

Y 



330 SERMON X. 

Lazarus left their pure society, and their exalted happi- 
ness, to inhabit once more a dying body in the valley of 
tears ! The disciples on earth had a demonstration of 
the mighty power of God, and of that connection which 
subsists between mortals on earth and the invisible state. 
It was, therefore, necessary that Lazarus should die. 
It occasioned, amongst his kindred, temporary sorrow; 
but that was more than recompensed by the unexpected 
joy of his resurrection from the dead. 

How interesting, and how edifying was our Lord's 
conversation with the mourning sisters ! How consola- 
tory were the first words he addressed to Martha : "Thy 
brother shall rise again !" Jesus Christ speaks as though 
death itself had no power to destroy the relationship of 
pious Mndred. " Thy Brother shall rise again :" 
Thou shalt see him, thou shalt recognize him, thou shalt 
hail him as he who was thy brother upon earth. O what 
a joyous thought is it, when weeping at the grave of a 
Christian friend, that the same body which we commit, 
" Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes," shall be 
raised again. We shall see his body all transformed and 
glorious, and shall enjoy communion with his spirit, in 
the realms of bliss unutterable, where " there shall be no 
more curse."" 

Of the truth of our Lord's remark, Martha was fully 
assured : From her reply we perceive, that the Old Tes- 
tament was sufficient to give clear views of a future 
resurrection of the body, and of the judgment-day. 
" Martha saith unto him, / know that he shall rise again 
in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her," 
— we may conceive with the utmost solemnity, and in a 
manner that expressed his dignity and majesty — " I am" 
— not / will be when exalted, but even now in my hu~ 



lazarus' resurrection. 331 

miliation — " I am the resurrection and the life : He that 
belie veth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : 
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never 
die. — Believest thou this ?" O what inexpressible com- 
fort flows from believing these words t Comfort in re- 
gard to the dead ; they shall yet live. " Thy dead men 
shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise." 
" Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust." Comfort 
in regard to ourselves ; if we live believingly till our 
last hour, " we shall never die" eternally ; but we shall 
" rest from our labours, and our works will follow us."" 
We shall die in the arms of him who is the Resurrection 
and the Life, and who saith, " I am he that liveth, and 
was dead ; and, behold I am alive for evermore, Amen, 
and have the keys of hell and of death." Hades is men- 
tioned before death ; because he will admit our souls 
into Paradise, before the grave is opened to receive our 
mortal remains. 

When Jesus had thus spoken to Martha, and she had 
professed her faith in him, " she went her way, and 
called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is 
come, and calleth Jbr thee."'' Doubtless Jesus had in- 
quired concerning Mary. " As soon as Mary heard 
that, she arose quickly, and came unto him." Noble 
example, for the imitation of those tender spirits that 
have most of sensibility at the bereavement of friends 
and kindred ! Let them not be inconsolable, and yield 
themselves a prey to grief ; but, whenever the Master 
calls for their active services, by presenting an opportu- 
nity of doing good, let them arise quickly, and engage 
in it ; and they shall find thereby their sorrows assuaged, 
and prospects increasingly bright of eternal glory open- 
ing to their view. 

y 2 



W6% SERMON X. 

The place where Martha and Mary met Jesus was 
without the town ; and, it seems, Jesus did not imme- 
diately enter Bethany, but went with the sisters, and his 
disciples, and the Jews who followed Mary, to the place 
of Lazarus' tomb. What an affecting spectacle ! Never 
did funeral present so solemn a mourning. Martha 
wept. Mary wept. The Jews were also weeping. The 
disciples wept. " Jesus wept.' 1 See the majesty of 
grief ! Here were no frantic ravings, no extravagant 
lamentations ; but such a sorrow as became saints, and 
such a keenness of distress as was not unworthy of the 
Son of God. At length they reach the dear spot where 
lay a beloved disciple, friend, and brother I u Jesus, 
again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was 
a cave, and a stone lay upon it." 
4. The Resurrection of Lazarus. 
Interesting was the conversation that now took place 
at the grave of the deceased. " Jesus said, Take ye away 
the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, 
saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh ; for he 
hath bath been dead [or rather, in the grave, see 17,] 
jour days." His body now is mere corruption, though 
it has not had time to decompose, and return to dust : 
It is nothing but one offensive, putrid mass. — But 
" Jesus saith unto her" — (O let us mark the memorable 
words !) — " Said I not unto thee, that, if thou woiddest 
believe, thou slwuldest see the glory of God f — It seems 
then, that the performance of this astonishing miracle 
depended in some degree on Martha's faith. There are 
cases in which we are called to believe for others ; and 
what God will do/or them, depends in part on the con- 
fidence we exercise on their behalf, when we make our 
requests known to God. We are to consider nothing as 



LAZARUS' RESURRECTION. 333 

impossible, but we are to " believe, that we may see 
the glory of God." 

The stone having been rolled away from the mouth 
of the cave, " Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, 
I thank thee that thou hast heard me? Jesus Christ 
would not perform this miracle wittiout prayer. He 
sought to shew to the world, that he was " one with 
the Father ;" and to teach mankind, by his own exam- 
ple, to acknowledge their dependance upon God. But 
how remarkable are the expressions used in his petition : 
" Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me? Jesus 1 
tears and groanings were prayers, before he uttered a 
word ; and the Father heard those powerful interces- 
sions while the Redeemer was travelling to the tomb of 
his friend. At Lazarus' grave Jesus offered thanks- 
giving : — " Father, I thank thee." It becomes us in the 
midst of our sorrow for the loss of kindred, to offer up 
praise to God, that the intercessions of Christ on behalf 
of his saints have all been accepted of the Father ; so that 
we may confidently rely on the fulfilment of that sure 
word of promise, f 6 Them that sleep in Jesus, will God 
bring with him." 

" When Jesus had thus spoken, he cried with a loud 
voice, Lazarus, Come forth P — What indescribable 
majesty ! Here is no pomp : But, O ! what greatness ! 
It is the command of God ! It was obeyed in a moment ! 
The corruptible was changed from its state of corrup- 
tion ; the soul inhabited her former tabernacle ; life 
flowed in all the veins, and vigour diffused itself through- 
out the frame. There scarcely seemed to have been any 
process in the work : Jehovah spake, and it was done. 
" He that had been dead came forth, bound hand and 
foot with grave-clothes : And his face was bound about 

y 3 



834 SEKMON X. 

with a napkin." — What an amazing spectacle ! Every 
eye fixes its gaze upon the solemn scene ! It is Lazarus! 
The Jews see it is Lazarus ! The disciples see it is La- 
zarus ! Martha and Mary see, through floods of tears, 
that it is their own brother Lazarus ! The same fea- 
tures, — though one may suppose his countenance to have 
been irradiated, and brightened with a benignant smile, 
expressive in some degree of that happiness which his . 
spirit had enjoyed in the blissful presence of God. And 
though the Evangelist has not recorded it, we may safely 
conclude that his first act was adoration at the feet of 
him who is the Resurrection and the Life ! Then Jesus 
saith unto them, " Loose IdrrC from the bandages of his 
grave clothes, " and let 1dm go!" At the last day, how- 
ever, none of those vestiges of death shall be found upon 
the saints, for they shall rise immortal. 

5. It only remains to consider the conclusion of this 
whole history. 

The miracle was lasting. It was not a temporary resur- 
rection ; for Lazarus lived long afterwards. " Ecclesi- 
astical history informs us, that Lazarus was now thirty 
years old, and that he lived thirty years after Christ's 
ascension." We find that he was, some days after, pre- 
sent at a feast, with our Lord in Bethany : " Then 
Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany ; 
where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he 
raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, 
and Martha served; but Lazarus was one of them that 
sat at table with him." (xii. 12.) Here Mary shewed 
her affectionate gratitude, by " anointing the feet of 
Jesus, and wiping them with her hair, so that the house 
was filled with the odour of the ointment." A grateful 
heart never knows how to express sufficiently the oblU 



lazarus' resurrection. 335 

gation it feels to Christ : And, seeing we have Christ's 
poor with us now, though not his bodily presence, we 
are called to expend our all upon them, and he will 
regard it as done unto himself. 

How odious do the covetousness and envy of Judas 
appear ! " Why," said he, " was not this ointment sold 
lor three hundred pence, and given to the poor ?" Did 
not he see Lazarus sitting at the same table with him- 
self, in the presence of their common Master ? Did he 
not know all the circumstances of his resurrection? Why 
not then allow lowly Mary to indulge in the effusions of 
gratitude, and honour Christ in the best manner she 
could ? — We need not wonder, that Judas received from 
Christ so severe a rebuke : " Let her alone : Against 
the day of my burying hath she kept this. 1 ' The last 
remark must have been terribly cutting to Judas, as he 
must have been conscious that he was then purposing to 
accomplish the destruction of his Lord and Master. 

The effect produced by this miracle on the minds of 
many, was salutary. " Many of the Jews which came to 
Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, be- 
lieved on him. ,, (xi. 45.) c( And many also who came 
to the feast, when they saw Lazarus, believed on Jesus." 
(xii. 11.) And because of this miracle, much people 
that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus 
was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, 
and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna! 
Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name 
of' the Lord /" So universally were the people moved 
in his favour, that the Pharisees said among themselves, 
" Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing ? Behold the world 
is gone after him !" Nevertheless, only a few days 
after, some of the populace were instigated to cry out, 



336 SERMON X. 

" Crucify him ! Crucify him !"" As to a great majority 
of the Pharisees, and chief priests, and rulers, they 
were the more hardened by this astonishing miracle, 
and determined to oppose the truth more violently than 
ever. In their conduct, we see the words of our Lord 
most literally verified — " If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one 
rose from the dead." 

II. We are to apply those doctrines which arise from 
the view taken of this history. 

1 . Christ is God. — The miracle of Lazarus 1 resurrec- 
tion affords undeniable evidence of the Divinity, as well 
as of the Messiahship of Christ. " Why," said St. Paul to 
Agrippa, " should it be thought a thing incredible with 
you, that God should raise the dead ?" He knew that 
it would be utterly incredible to attribute such an act to 
the power of any mere man. Elijah indeed received 
" the dead raised to life again" in answer to believing 
prayer ; but in that prayer he acknowledged his own 
inability to effect the miracle. " He cried unto the Lord, 
and said, O Lord, my God, let, I pray thee, this child's 
soul come into him again.' 1 '' Jesus addressed his Father, 
that the " people which stood by might believe that the 
Father had sent him;' 11 (41 ;) but he raised Lazarus by 
his own almighty power. He spake in a manner that 
became none but " the God of the spirits of all flesh ;*" 
and thereby evidenced that " as the Father raiseth up 
the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quick- 
eneth whom he will.'" He is Lord over all worlds; 
spirits in hades, and bodies in the tomb, are equally 
subject to his controul. He knows each spirit, and the 
identical body to which each spirit belongs, and can 



lazarus" resurrection. 337 

effect a re-union of body and soul in a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye. He wills and it is done. What 
a mighty Redeemer ! And his grace is equal to his 
power. Seeing then there is nothing too hard for the 
Lord, can our confidence in him be too strong ; or our 
expectations of his goodness be raised too high? He 
can save us to the uttermost. Our Saviour is God ; and 
God is greater than our heart. God is mightier than 
our strongest corruptions, and he can so throughly 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that even our most 
easily besetting sin shall be felt within us no more. 
Deny it, and you deny the power of Christ ; you are 
no longer " strong in faith, giving glory to God. r> 
How cheerfully may we commit body and soul to the 
keeping of such a Redeemer as unto a faithful Crea- 
tor ! "I know," said holy Paul, " whom I have 
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him against that 
day." And the language of the Psalmist is no less re- 
markable, " Into thine hand I commit my spirit : Thou 
hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. 1 '' The Re- 
deemer, the God of truth, is he on whom we are to 
rely for salvation, not only throughout life, but also in 
our dying moments. O what can a sinner do without a 
divine Saviour, an atoning Saviour, in his last hours, 
when the pains of death fall upon him ! But with 
scriptural views of his eternal Godhead, and a saving 
faith in his entire work as Mediator, we may venture 
undismayed into eternity, and enter, without fear, the 
immediate presence of God. With what solemn, yet 
grateful feelings, will a dying saint repeat, 

None but Christ to me be given ! 
None but Christ in earth or heaven 1 



388 SERMON X. 

It is an unshaken conviction of the Divinity, the essen- 
tial Divinity of Christ, that inspires him with such con- 
fidence in the performance of his last act on earth. 
Hear him solemnly commend his departing soul to God. 
Does he breathe forth this prayer : " Jesus, receive my 
spirit !" No ! That name Jesus brings neither comfort 
nor salvation but as it is connected with Ms Deity. He, 
therefore, owns that Deity with his expiring gasp, say- 
ing, " Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit i" That is, Sove- 
reign Jesus, Jehovah Jesus, God my Redeemer, receive 
my ransomed soul ! Let us not then fear death, seeing 
we have such a Christ. These souls of ours come from 
him ; he hath purchased them with his blood ; he hath 
renewed them by his Spirit; and he has prepared for 
them many mansions in his Father's kingdom. Our 
bodies also are his workmanship ; they are ransomed 
bodies ; "the earth is the Lord's" in which they rest in 
dust. Let us leave our all in his hands, without one 
anxious or distrustful thought ; and he will glorify us 
with himself to all eternity. 

3. We have kindred in Paradise ! What a consoling 
thought to those who have had parents, or children, or 
brethren, or sisters, that have died in the Lord ! " Where 
are they ? Do they live for ever P" Yes : They live 
for ever with God. By the aid of that faith which looks 
into the invisible world, see them before the throne of 
him that loved them, and washed them from their sins in 
his own blood ! How vast their knowledge, now that the 
spirit is no longer confined in a prison of clay ! In this 
life, we can hardly conceive what the vast mind of man 
is capable of knowing. They see the visions of God, 
and know as they are known ! What love, mingled with 
the most delightful awe, overwhelms them in the pre- 



LAZARUS' RESURRECTION. 339 

sence of their Redeemer ! What a fulness of joy do 
they find at his right hand ! What blissful employment 
becomes their exercise day and night ! " And I heard 
as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice 
of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, 
saying, Halleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reign- 
eihr A brothers voice mingles with that mighty 
chorus ; lie also shouts aloud, Hallelujah ! Hallelujah ! 
— And shall thine eyes, O Christian, be dim with sorrow, 
because he is taken from thee, to inherit that glory ? 
Or rather, not taken from thee; but taken thither a 
little before thee ! Cease thy grief, at least for a season. 
Arise, and bow in thy closet before the Redeemer ; and, 
adoring at his feet, join in the song of heaven, and cry, 
Hallelujah ! Thou, O Jesus, " art worthy to receive 
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
honour, and glory, and blessing. " As it regards the 
body, we have this promise, " They shall rest in their 
beds." If the body knows no joy, it feels no pain ; the 
eye-lids have forgotten to weep. He that " comprehends 
the dust of the earth in a measure, and who taketh up 
the isles as a very little thing," knows their dust, and will 
be at no loss to find them, when he comes to " render 
unto every man according to the deeds done in the 
body." " Thou shalt call and I will answer thee : Thou 
wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands." (Job xiv. 
15.) Nor is it improbable, that death itself will be a 
means of leading to a more intimate knowledge of that 
wonderful union which subsists between body and soul, 
than we should have ever attained to, had man continued 
immortal : Just as a piece of curious mechanism is more 
fully understood by taking it to pieces, and examining 
the construction of its several parts, and the manner in 
which they act on each other. 



340 SEllMOtf X. 

3. The dead shall all be raised in the judgment of the 
great day. 

In what majesty will the Son of God then appear I 
He will descend from heaven, with that same body which 
he had when he stood at the tomb of Lazarus. But O 
how glorious and exalted ! He will be attended not by 
a few disciples, and by weeping friends ; but by all the 
holy angels ; and the living saints shall rejoice, that the 
final redemption draweth nigh ! His mighty voice shall 
command the dead to arise ; and then not an individual 
disciple merely, but " all that are in their graves shall 
hear his voice and come forth.' 1 O that coming forth I 
It is to receive a final, an eternal destiny : — " They that 
have done good, to the resurrection of life ; they that 
have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation.'' 1 

The command is given to the attending angels, who 
were ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation on earth : 
" Gather my saints together, those that have made a 
covenant with me by sacrifice. 11 Here meet in one 
assembly the saints of every age. Here Martha, and 
Mary, and Lazarus, behold each other, and joy to know 
that they shall u die no more. 11 Here Abraham finds a 
Sarah, — "his dead whom he had buried out of his 
sight ;" and Job, his children, whom " the Lord had 
taken away ;" and the " devout men 11 of the early Chris- 
tian church, that same Stephen, whom they had carried 
to his burial, " making lamentation over him. 11 And 
there we^shall meet our blessed dead ; and we with them 
shall behold our common Redeemer with unutterable 
joy when " he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to 
be admired in all them that believe. 11 Let us then be 
found ready, and waiting for the appearing of our Lord. 
Let the'decease of every Christian friend cause us, with 
renewed diligence, " to gird up the loins of our mind, 



LAZARUS' RESURRECTION. 341 

to be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to 
be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 
" For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even 
so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with 
him. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first. Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 
" Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." 



SERMON XI. 
ON HUMILITY. 



Be clothed with Humility 1 Peter v. 5. 

Every perversion of religion which has proceeded 
from the invention of man, has a direct tendency to 
nourish pride, and to exalt him in his own estimation. 
Yet in this we see the folly of human wisdom, inasmuch 
as it contains within itself the principles of its own de- 
struction: For pride is in reality the degradation of 
man; and every departure from the truth, either in 
theory or practice, only ends in deeper debasement of 
spirit. But religion, as it came from God, whether 
given to man in Paradise, or since the fall, is calculated 
to promote humility, and to abase him in the presence 
of his Maker. It leads through the valley of humility 
to the loftiest heights of exaltation ; for it causes even 
sinful man to become a saint on earth, and. then lifts him 
up to the throne of God. 

If to promote Humility be the design of all revealed 
religion, we may reasonably expect to find that end kept 
in view, in the last and most perfect dispensation of 
mercy given to the world. Humility is the distinguish- 
ing feature of Christianity. " Learn of me, 1 ' says Christ; 
and then he only prescribes one lesson for us to learn :• — 



ON HUMILITY. 34S 

" I am meek and lowly in heart." Herein consists the 
proper study of Christianity ; and he best understands 
its nature, who drinks deepest into its spirit, and who 
possesses, in the greatest perfection, "genuine meek 
humility." 

To assist you in your endeavours to become Chris- 
tians of a higher order, I shall attempt 

I. To explain what Humility is ; 

II. Point out the singular excellency of this grace ; 
And, 

III. Shew the best means of preserving it, and of 
increasing in it. 

I. The Nature of Humility. 

There are three different views to be taken of this 
Christian grace, according to which it may be variously 
defined. If we speak of it in reference to God, Humi- 
lity is a deep conviction of our sinfulness and unworthi- 
ness, and of our absolute dependance on his grace for 
every thing that is good. If in reference to ourselves, 
Humility is a lowly estimation of our own character, 
attainments, and performances. If in reference to our 
fellow-creatures, Humility is that disposition of mind 
which places us at the feet of the least disciple of our 
Lord, and that makes us willing, for the sake of Christ, 
to be the servant of all men. 

1 . Humility in relation to God. 

It is a deep conviction of our sinfulness and unwor- 
thiness, and of our absolute dependance on his grace for 
every thing that is good. 

There can be no Humility without a manifestation of 
God. When a sinner is truly awakened, though God 
has not, as yet, shined into his heart, so as to give him 



'344 SERMON XI. 

the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of 
Jesus Christ ; yet has he impressed the mind with an 
awful sense of his majesty, and power, and holiness, and 
justice, which, joined with a consciousness of guilt, makes 
him " poor and contrite," and causes him to " tremble 
at the word of the Lord." But when Jehovah manifests 
himself as " the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,"" the 
pardoned penitent is humbled still more deeply, than in 
his awakened state. He is then especially filled with 
holy shame, and from the ground of his heart adopts the 
language of the apostle, " Not by works of righteous- 
ness that we have done, but according to his mercy he 
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly, 
through Jesus Christ Our Saviour ; that being justified 
by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the 
hope of eternal life." (Titus iii. 5 — 7.) " By the grace 
of God, I am what I am." 

As he increases in grace, he increases in Humility. 
This is a consequence of deeper communion with God. 
Every manifestation of Jehovah, his Father and Friend, 
his All in All, abases him as in the dust. Nor can he 
retire from his closet, where he has conversed with his 
Maker, without carrying into the world such a sense of 
his own undeservings and un worthiness, as shall con- 
strain him with a most delightful and pleasing constraint, 
to a lowly and affectionate carriage and deportment in 
all his converse with men. 

But the Christian is never thoroughly " clothed with 
Humility," till " his day of Pentecost is fully come." 
When he is " cleansed from all unrighteousness," and 
made " perfect in love ;" — when he is " sanctified wholly, 



ON HUMILITY. • 345 

throughout spirit, and soul, and body," and becomes 
*' unblameable in holiness"" before God, even our Father, 
through being " filled with the Holy Ghost ;"— then is 
he purified from pride, and truly possesses that humble 
4i mind that was in Christ Jesus." „" Blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God ;" and, seeing God, 
they are much more abased in spirit, than if they saw 
nothing but their own corruptions. Hence it is that, 
in all ages of the world, the most eminent saints have 
been the most humble ; as Abraham, Job, Isaiah, Paul, 
and others ; not surely because they really had a small 
degree of grace, but because " all grace was made to 
abound towards them." He is " clothed with Humility" 
who has so " put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as not to 
make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof;" 
but wha, on the contrary, " has escaped the corruption 
that is in the world through lust, being made a partaker 
of the divine nature," by the mighty power of God. 
Christian perfection is the perfection of Humility. No- 
thing so much humbles the soul as the " perfect love of 
God." If the Christian be called unto holiness, it is 
perfect love that enables him to " walk worthy of that 
vocation, with all lowliness and meekness :" And if the 
end of the Christian ministry be " the perfecting of the 
saints," that end is answered when "the new man is put 
on, which after God is created in righteousness and true 
holiness." It is then that the believer has a constant 
and penetrating conviction of his original depravity ; of 
his numerous actual transgressions before he was brought 
to the knowledge of the truth ; of the strength of his 
corruptions, and their manifold workings in the heart, 
until Jesus Christ had made him whole of whatsoever 
disease he had ; of his infinite obligations to the rich, 

Z 



546 SERMON XI. 

free, and unmerited grace of God ; and of his constant 
momentary depen dance on that grace for a continuance 
and increase of the life of God in the soul. Of all these 
things he has a much deeper and more lively conviction^ 
than he who is yet comparatively " carnal, and but a 
babe in Christ."" He feels that " without Christ he can 
do nothing ;" and that he constantly needs his grace, to 
enable him to resist temptation, and to " keep him from 
falling, y;h at he may be presented faultless before the 
throne of the divine glory with exceeding joy." Nor 
can the desire of his heart be better expressed than in 
these lines of a Christian poet : 

Still let me gain perfection's height, 

Still let me into nothing fall, 
As less than nothing in thy sight, 

And feel that Christ is All in All. 

Here is the Humility of saints ; in this manner, with- 
out sinning, do they " walk humbly with God." The 
Holy Ghost dwells in them ; he keeps them humble, 
without the help of their own corruptions. All the dis- 
coveries which God makes to the soul, are humbling. 
Now his light makes the clearest discoveries, when its 
lustre is not clouded by the darkness of sin. And he 
that is most humble in the presence of God, will be the 
least in his own estimation. Hence we may take ano- 
ther view of this Christian grace, and consider 

2. Humility in reference to ourselves. 

It is a lowly estimation of our own character, attain- 
ments, and performances. 

It is certain, however, that he who possesses genuine 
Humility, knows what his real character is, and it is no 
part of Humility to deny that character : For that would 



ON HUMILITY. 347 

be to deny the grace of God that is in him ; or at least, 
to " receive that grace in vain." It is his duty, on all 
proper occasions, to " declare what God hath done for 
his soul;" not that he may magnify himself, but that 
others may glorify God in him. The employment of 
eternity ought to begin in time. He who would here- 
after, in the heavenly world, where all boasting will be 
for ever excluded, declare the loving-kindness of the 
Lord, must take up his cross, if it prove one, by 
i( shewing forth the salvation of Jehovah from day to 
day" while he dwells upon earth. If he have been saved 
to the uttermost, let him, before those who are seeking 
the same blessing, with his mouth make confession 
of it, and not hide the righteousness of God within 
his heart. There is no pride in owning, that God is 
faithful and just in fulfilling all his promises, and in 
declaring with Joshua, " Not one thing hath failed of 
all the good things which the Lord our God spake con- 
cerning us ; all are come to pass unto us, not one thing 
hath failed thereof." But he has reason to fear the 
existence of pride, who is ashamed of the reproach he 
might have to encounter, were he to "set to his seal 
that God is true." 

When St. Paul acknowledged concerning himself, that 
he was the chief of sinners, he referred more especially 
to his character and conduct before his conversion, when 
he was " a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious." 
He could not, in an absolute and unqualified sense, re- 
gard himself as the chief of sinners when he had been 
made a saint by the mercy of God ; as he testifies in 
another place, "Unto me, who am less than the least of 
all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among 
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." The 
z 2 



348 .SERMON XI. 

Christian then knows, that he is a saint ; but, knowing 
himself better than he can possibly know another, and 
comparing his holiness and enjoyments with his privi- 
leges, he conceives himself to be " less than the least of 
all :" This is the habitual estimation that he forms of 
his own character. Yea, the more he possesses, the more 
lowly he becomes ; Humility always preceding and ac- 
companying a deeper work of grace in the heart. 

A humble man never over- rates his talents. Great 
gifts are indeed very dangerous, without great grace ; 
so that where piety is not deep, it is a great mercy to be 
blest with only slender abilities. The danger arising 
from the possession of more than ordinary talents, is 
oftentimes vastly increased by the injudicious commen- 
dations of Christian friends, who are too apt fool- 
ishly and sinfully to idolize the creature, instead of 
giving unto God the glory due unto his name. But he 
who is truly humble never fancies, that he possesses any 
excellence or talent of which he is entirely destitute ; for 
he is sensible that such a conceit is the highest pitch of 
pride. Hence he knows his station in life, or in the 
church of God, and never attempts any thing beyond 
his power : but, directing all his energies, and putting 
forth all his strength, in his own proper work, he em- 
ploys his talents in it in such a manner as to ensure the 
Redeemer's approbation. Of those talents which he 
really possesses, he " vaunteth not himself," since he 
is only concerned rightly to use, and constantly to im- 
prove them, and has no desire to make a show of them 
to the world. He covets not the praises of mankind ; 
and, as to the children of God, he would rather merit 
than receive their commendations. It is in this manner 
that he exemplifies the truth of these lines, 



ON HUMILITY. 349 

The Christian he alone is wise, 
r lhe Christian he alone is great. 

The possession of Humility keeps his mind always even ; 
for it preserves him from a thousand mortifications to 
which the vain and little-minded are exposed every day, 
He that has but a small measure of Humility will " think 
of himself more highly than he ought to think," and be 
ready to take offence whenever men do not, in his judg- 
ment, sufficiently estimate his parts or his piety. If he 
be not respected as he desires, his anger will kindle into 
a flame. But he who is rooted in Humility, " will think 
soberly according as God hath dealt unto him the mea- 
sure of faith." He will not, of course, be ignorant of 
" the measure,*" or degree of gifts he has received ; for, 
without a knowledge of their nature and extent, he 
could not improve them : But that knowledge will ever 
be accompanied with such a consciousness of his own 
inability to employ them aright, and of the awful re- 
sponsibility that lies upon him, as will make him trem- 
ble, lest he should meet at last the punishment of a 
slothful and unprofitable servant. These recollections, 
joined with a remembrance of many instances of unfaith- 
fulness, make even his gifts a great means of promoting 
Humility in his soul before God. 

As the Christian forms a lowly estimation of his cha- 
racter and attainments, so also does he think soberly 
with regard to his performances. It is true, that nearly 
all the good that is done in the world, is done by Chris- 
tians. It is their example, and their agency, their in- 
fluence and their arguments, that put in motion the 
great mass of mankind amongst whom they live, to 
accomplish those benevolent purposes which Christianity 
itself inspires. A Christian must do good ; his prin- 

z 3 



350 SERMON XI. 

ciples, so long as they have a hold upon the heart, 
will be operative, constraining him to exert himself, 
according to his sphere in life and his circumstances, to 
promote the glory of Christ. This is the very end for 
which he lives. " For none of us liveth to himself, and 
no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live 
unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the 
Lord : Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the 
Lord's. For us to live is Christ, and to die is gain." 
But, in the midst of his zeal, and prayers, and charities, 
the Christian recollects that it is written, " When ye 
have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants." He 
judges of his performances, not from the opinions of men, 
but from the extent of his duty, and from the infinite 
and eternal obligations he owes to the Redeemer. Hence 
it is that all his deeds appear small, and unworthy of 
notice ; nor can he forbear to admire the riches of the 
grace of God ; according to which, his works will, in 
honour of the principle from whence they proceed, re- 
ceive a righteous reward from the Judge of all in the 
last day. His performances, therefore, associated with 
scriptural views of their rewardableness, are so far from 
ministering to pride, that they contribute to his abase- 
ment on earth ; as, when he receives that " full reward," 
he will be eternally humbled before the throne of God. 

3. We are to take a third view of humility, and to 
consider it in regard to our fellow-creatures. 

It is that disposition of mind which places us at the 
feet of the least disciple of our Lord, and makes us will- 
ing, for the sake of Christ, to be the servants of all men. 

A humble man is not blind to those excellencies which 
others possess ; neither is he envious of them, or of the 
favour that they may procure : But he rejoices in them 



ON HUMILITY. 351 

with exceeding joy, and makes the felicity of others a 
means of augmenting his own happiness. While he 
loves with " a pure heart fervently" his fellow Christian, 
because he is a Christian, he especially esteems him on 
account of those distinguishing virtues that may be most 
conspicuous in his character or conduct. Envy is gone 
where humility reigns. Envy only exists where there is 
ambition. He that envies another any adventitious 
superiority, however he many disguise the vice, is only 
ambitious to encircle his own brow with the wreath 
which adorns that of his neighbour. But humility 
loves to honour and is ashamed of being honoured. 
* 6 In lowliness of mind," says the apostle, " let each 
esteem other better than themselves. Look not every 
man on his own things, but every man also on the things 
of others. " Here is the conduct of a Christian, — he 
4i looks not on his own things" with any sinful compla- 
cency : But on " the things of others," their good works, 
or words, or purposes, he looks with unmingled plea- 
sure ; and sincerely blesses God, if others become more 
wise and holy, and are made more honourable and useful 
than he. 

Humility places us at the feet of all. Not indeed that 
it confounds all order and distinction in the church of 
Christ, making the hand the foot, and the eye the ear ; 
but it well regulates the whole body, teaching the hand 
not to despise the services of the foot, and the eye not to 
refuse the advantages of that instruction that may be 
conveyed by the ear. Ministers may learn much from 
their people ; and fathers in Christ may often receive 
an useful hint from those who are only babes. Jesus 
Christ once taught all his disciples by the example of a 
little child : And the venerable Wesley has left us this 



352 SERMON XI. 

remark relative to his own conduct : "I say unto God 
and man, What I know not, teach thou me." By him 
that is truly humble, instruction will be thankfully 
received as coming from God, whether the instrument 
employed to convey it be a philosopher or a babe. In- 
deed God oftentimes chooses to instruct the wiser by the 
less wise, that with growing knowledge they may increase 
in Humility, when the comparatively foolish become 
their teachers. But he that is above learning, even 
from an almost idiot, has need to begin over again with 
the elements of Christianity. 

If Humility reigned as it ought in every Christian's 
heart, there would not be found amongst them any cri- 
ticising hearers of the word of God. " With meekness," 
says the apostle, " receive ye the engrafted word, which 
is able to save your souls." Were we possessed of that 
eminent grace, meekness, every one would be a learner, 
not a judge, on the Sabbath day ; and no one would hear 
a sermon, whosoever might be the minister, without 
increasing in wisdom, or in piety. The celebrated Mr. 
Grimshaw, after hearing one of our early itinerant mi- 
nisters deliver a discourse in the kitchen of his parsonage 
house, at Howarth, fell at his feet, saying : " The Lord 
bless thee, Jerry ! One of thy sermons is worth twenty 
of mine." O if the pert critics of oar day, who are ac- 
customed to offer " remarks" on every sermon they hear., 
had but the shadow of a Grimshaw's solid and substan- 
tial piety, how would they set themselves to practise 
instead of despising what they hear, and thus avoid the 
curse of " coming as God's people come," without being 
converted and saved ! He that reproaches a servant of 
Christ, who has spoken " as the oracles of God," because 
his manner or turn of expression was not just according 



ON HUMILITY. 35$ 

to his fancy, reproaches his Master who sent him ; and 
Christ will put it to his own account, and perhaps judi- 
cially punish that man, by preventing him from receiv- 
ing any real good, though he may be very much grati- 
fied when a more pleasing preacher shall address his 
" itching ears." If Humility require, that we place 
ourselves at the feet of the simplest believer, shall we so 
far forget the Christian character, as to judge him who 
comes invested with the most awful authority as an am- 
bassador for Christ ? Or rather I would say, shall we 
give such sad evidence that we are destitute of Chris- 
tianity, because Humility we have none ? Woe be to 
you that judge the preachers of God's word, instead of 
being by their doctrines nourished up in faith and holi- 
ness ! Woe be to you, for God himself shall judge you 
with a tremendous judgment, when you appear at his 
tribunal ! To avoid that final condemnation, let m& 
charge 1 you all, to take heed how you hear ! Take 
heed to your prejudices before you hear, and to your 
spirit while hearing, and to your conduct after you have 
heard : Or to sum up all exhortations in one, take heed 
that ye be " clothed with Humility ." 

No offices of kindness, if indispensably necessary, are 
accounted, by a humble man, too low and mean to per- 
form, towards any disciple of his Lord. Washing' of 
feet was anciently a duty performed by slaves towards 
the guests of their master. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on 
one memorable occasion, after he had partaken of a 
supper with his disciples, arose, and himself performed 
the service of a slave to them. The evangelist has 
introduced this part of his history with words that do 
strikingly set forth the dignity of our Saviour, and 
thereby make the contrast of his humiliation the more 



354 SERMON XI. 

impressive : " Jesus knowing that the Father had given 
all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, 
and went to God ; he riseth from supper, and laid aside 
his garments ; and took a towel and girded himself. 
After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to 
wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel 
wherewith he was girded." When our Lord came to 
Peter, that disciple was so astonished at the apparent 
degradation of the office which the Saviour had under- 
taken, that he said, " Lord, dost thou wash my feet ?" 
And afterwards with vehemence, " Thou shalt never 
wash my feet !" But when he had submitted, our Lord 
informed his disciples, at the close, the moral lesson of 
that action. " Know ye," said he, " what I have done 
to you ? Ye call me Master and Lord : And ye say 
well ; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, 
have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one 
another's feet. For I have given you an example, that 
ye should do as I have done to you." (John xvii. 3 — 16.) 
Now though our customs, differing as they do from 
those of eastern countries, render an imitation of Christ 
in this particular act unnecessary ; yet in every practi- 
cable case, we are to conform, in the most cheerful and 
unaffected manner to the spirit of his example. Nothing 
is beneath a Christian but sin. If angels attend upon a 
dying Lazarus, and wait to convey his departing spirit 
to Paradise, shall a fellow disciple think it any great 
condescension to dress his wounds ; or to sustain his 
head in his expiring moments; or to follow him, in an 
honourable manner, to an obscure grave or tomb ? Let 
none then, who are called Christians, be ashamed of 
Christ's poor; but let us honour and love them; and, 
in reference to them especially, let us ever feel 



ON HUMILITY. 355 

All other joys are less, 
Than the one joy of doing kindnesses. 

Lastly : Of Humility we observe, that it is the most 
retiring of all the graces of the Spirit of God. It shuns 
human observation, yet is it of alL graces unavoidably 
the most conspicuous, when possessed in an eminent 
degree. It is, like an outer garment, always in view. 
This thought is suggested by the expression of the 
apostle, " Be \clothed with Humility :" Be constantly 
ready to the prompt performance of the lowest offices 
of kindness and benevolence ; and yet be, as it were, 
unconscious of your Humility ; esteem kindness, when 
you perform it, a privilege to yourself, more than as an 
act of condescension. And let not pride mingle with an 
humble outward action, and^render it odious in the eyes 
of God, while it may command the esteem and applause 
of man. A servant is never proud of wearing that gar= 
ment which is the badge of his servitude. 

Having thus explained at large what Humility is, let 
us proceed to consider, Secondly, 

II. The Singular Excellency of this Chris- 
tian Grace. 

Humility is the grace which shone forth most conspi- 
cuously throughout the life of our Redeemer. The very 
act of his taking our nature upon him, was in itself an 
astonishing display of the greatest condescension. It 
was riches united to poverty, strength to weakness, hap- 
piness to misery. " Without controversy great is the 
mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh ;" " in 
the likeness of sinful flesh." Words are lost in attempt- 
ing to explain this subject ; and the mind itself is over- 
whelmed with its greatness, in endeavouring to compre- 



S56 SERMON XI. 

hend it. The humiliation of Christ will furnish matter 
for the everlasting admiration and gratitude of all pure 
and intelligent spirits ; and especially of redeemed and 
saved man. 

How wonderful were all the circumstances that at- 
tended our Saviour's incarnation ! His birth was not 
announced by angels to the great Sanhedrim of the Jews, 
nor to the wise and learned, and powerful of the Jew- 
ish nation, nor to the citizens of populous Jerusalem, 
nor yet to any favoured prophets raised to eminence 
before his coming, that they might usher in his appear- 
ance with splendour and glory ; but it was made known 
to " shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over 
their flock by night.* 1 '' No prodigies attended his birth 
in Judea, save the hymning of the heavenly host :— 
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth Peace^ 
Good-will toward men !" Yet that it might be seen 
that he was the God of the Gentiles, as well as the God 
of the Jews, a star was appointed to guide the Eastern 
Magi to Jerusalem; and the first offering that the Mes- 
siah received was, the " gold, and frankincense, and 
myrrh," which Gentile worshippers presented at his 
feet. " To him was given of the gold of Sheba ;" and 
then commenced the fulfilment of that prophecy, 
" prayer also shall be made for him continually, and 
daily shall he be praised." (Psalm lxxii. 15.) 

What a sight was it to the shepherd Jews, and to the 
wise men of the East, to behold him whom angels adored, 
and whom the luminous star pointed out as Lord of the 
visible creation, as " the babe lying in a manger !" The 
Son of God thus became man in the most helpless stage 
of humanity, that he might sanctify every state of hu- 
man life, from infancy up to ripe manhood. — He passed 



ON HUMILITY. S5T 

through infancy, that parents might be encouraged to 
dedicate their babes to him, and that they might not be 
without consolation when they are snatched away in the 
early morning of their existence. He who was once a 
babe in Bethlehem, receives, through the blood of atone- 
ment, the spirit of every dying infant, — whether of 
Pagan, or Mahommedan, or Jewish, or of Christian 
descent, — to his own eternal kingdom. But who, that 
only looked at outward things, would have conceived 
that he, who lay in a manger, was the Redeemer of the 
world ? Here was no pomp, no state, no greatness ; 
but what a lesson of Humility to all Christians through- 
out all ages ! 

In his life we behold a continual example of Humility. 
His wisdom was infinite. He was " in the bosom of the 
Father" — intimately and perfectly acquainted with all 
his counsels," and he had received the Spirit " without 
measure. ,, Yet when he opened his mouth to preach 
the gospel of the kingdom, he did not in a pompous 
manner deliver new laws ; but he expounded and ap- 
plied Moses and the prophets, though with an authority 
peculiarly his own. The manner in which he fulfilled 
his ministry was mild and unoffensive, and at the re- 
motest distance from ostentation. " He shall not strive, 
nor cry ; neither shall any man hear his voice in the 
streets." (Matt. xii. 19.) His miracles were great ; but 
he never wrought a single miracle purely for the display 
'of his own power. Many of his mightiest miracles were 
performed in comparative obscurity. He stilled the 
raging of the sea by his word, in the darkness of night; 
he twice miraculously fed many thousands in a desert ; 
and he raised Lazarus from the dead at the small town 
of Bethany. In all the instructions he gave his disci- 



358 SEKMON XI. 

pies in private, and in all his conduct towards them, 
from the day that they first followed him till his removal 
from them, he was continually teaching them the im- 
portance of Humility. 

See Jesus in his sufferings and death ! To what in- 
dignities, and reproaches, and scourgings, and bufferings ; 
and to what a shameful mockery of trial did he submit, 
at the bar of Pilate, and in the presence of Caiaphas, 
the high priest, and before haughty Herod ! Herod 
hoped to have seen some miracle done by him ; but 
Jesus wrought none. Herod " questioned with him in 
many words ; but Jesus answered him nothing. 11 He is 
crucified between thieves and murderers, and in his 
agony his foes insult him with the cry — " He saved 
others, himself he cannot save. 11 Of all the reproaches 
which Christ endured, none were so keen and bitter as 
those taunts that were drawn from his own acknowledged 
miracles. The credit of that character which he had 
obtained in Judea by his mighty deeds, seemed to be at 
stake ; those deeds themselves, to which he had been 
accustomed to appeal in his ministry, saying, — " Believe 
me for my work's sake 11 — were now produced as so many 
arguments against his being the true Messiah ! When 
the populace who had seen his wonderful works, heard 
66 the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders 11 join 
in the taunting and insulting declaration — " He saved 
others, himself he cannot save !" would they not be na- 
turally led to conclude, " That saying of our wise men 
is true, or surely he would save himself, and thereby 
give the demanded evidence of his being the Son of 
God ?" Nothing but the prodigies that followed, — the 
darkness, the earthquake, and the rending of the vail, — 
could arrest the progress of such unbelieving reasonings. 



ON HUMILITY. 359 

Even Christ's own disciples began to doubt, when they 
saw his end. But he " endured the cross, despising the 
shame. 11 He never once opened his mouth to proclaim 
his innocence, nor sought to check their insulting blas- 
phemies with a prediction of his future resurrection and 
glory; but, in the greatness of his Humility, he sub- 
mitted to be " laughed to scorn ;" to be contemned as 
u a worm and no man ;" and to be " a reproach of men, 
and despised of the people. 11 Herein he became our 
example, that we might learn with Humility and pa- 
tience to bear all the wrongs of ungodly men, and suffer 
no taunts, no scorning of the proud, nor even the faith- 
lessness of feeble brethren, to provoke us to speak un- 
advisedly with our lips. 

When Christ had dismissed his Spirit, the work of 
atonement was finished. The salvation of man would 
have been secured, had Jesus Christ shaken the earth 
to its centre ; and, in the presence of all the inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem, revived from the cross, entered their 
city, and confounded those who condemned him, and 
from their tribunal ascended triumphantly to glory. 
But he chose to be humbled still more : He lay in the 
grave as under the arrest of death, that he might carry 
immortality into the tomb. And when he arose, none 
were eye-witnesses at the moment of his coming forth, 
except perhaps the guards who were appointed to watch 
his burial. He afterwards manifested himself to none 
but his own disciples : And when he ascended in their 
sight, no visible grandeur attended that amazing tri- 
umph of "the King of glory; 11 but having "led them 
out as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands and 
blessed them ; it came to pass, 11 while in that gracious 
act of blessing them, " he was parted from them, and 



860 SERMON XI. 

carried up into heaven." (Luke xxiv. 50 — 53.) They 
" beheld when he was taken up, until a cloud received 
him out of their sight." (Acts i. 9-) 

What an impressive history is the history of the Son 
of God ! His every word, his every act ; — his birth, 
his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, — all 
seem to cry in our ears, " Learn of me ; for I am meek 
and lowly in heart." He doth not teach us to be war- 
riors, nor to be philosophers, nor to be statesmen, nor to 
be orators ; but every where he teaches us to be humble 
men. " Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exer- 
cise dominion over them, and they that are great exer- 
cise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among 
you : But whosoever will be great among you, let him 
be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, 
let him be your servant : Even as the Son of Man came 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give 
his life a ransom for many." (Matt. xx. 25 — 28.) What 
an excellent grace is Humility ! It is the glory of Christi- 
anity; and all the splendour of the Mosaic system hath no 
longer any glory, by reason of this " glory that excelleth." 

2. As it is Humility that forms the Christian charac- 
ter, so is it by preserving Humility that the Christian is 
kept from falling, and saved unto the end. " Thou 
standest by faith," says the apostle Paul; "be not high- 
minded, but fear." Fear lest thou shouldest fall ; lest 
thou shouldest be broken off from Christ ; and, instead 
of being restored at last by absolute necessity, shouldst 
be made an example of the just severity of God. " Take 
heed lest he also spare not thee." It is the very height 
of presumption in a pardoned believer, to suppose, in 
the first place, that God cannot cleanse him from all 
sin in this life, but that the carnal mind must remain as 



ON HUMILITY. 361 

long as he dwells upon earth ; and then to imagine, that 
God cannot, or will not, condemn him eternally, if, 
through the power of those corruptions he has so strongly 
pleaded for, he fall into actual sin f ||If grace did not 
mightily work in the heart, to the counteracting of the 
naturally dangerous tendency of such pernicious princi- 
ples, they would be the utter undoing of all who em- 
brace them. How singularly strange that any of our 
Christian brethren should believe, that all who are born 
of God are as absolutely secure from finally falling away, 
as the saints and angels whose probation is past /, while 
they will not allow it to be possible so far to resemble 
them in purity, as to " do the will of God on earth, as 
it is done in heaven." Their perfection does indeed 
greatly exceed any thing unto which we can hope to 
attain on this side of eternity. Error however is always 
full of inconsistencies. 

If you would continue humble, avoid such conceits ; 
they neither come from the word of God, nor are they 
in accordance with those holy fears and that godly jea- 
lousy you feel, when by the Spirit of God you are 
quickened to " give diligence, to make your calling and 
election sure." As theory influences practice, take your 
stand on low ground as the safest, ever remembering 
that a godly fear of falling, is the best preservative^/rom 
falling, and the only scriptural method of obtaining the 
end of your faith, — the final salvation of the soul. It 
is a rare thing, to meet with a backslider who has not 
been previously under the influence of pride ; while in 
those who continue to walk humbly with God, we see 
the great promise fulfilled, " They shall never perish, 
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." 
" Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit 

2 A 



36£ SERMON XI. 

before a fall :" But God " raiseth up the poor out of 
the dust, and setteth them among princes, to make them 
inherit the throne of glory ." 

3. Humility qualifies the Christian for extensive use- 
fulness in the church of God. This remark is sug- 
gested by the connection in which our text is found. 
The apostle had been addressing the elders or rulers 
of the church ; and them he exhorts not to be " lords 
oyer God's heritage, but to be ensamples to the flock f 
that is, ensamples of Humility. He would have them 
to consider that the only dignity needful for them, in 
their elevated office, consisted in exemplifying a su- 
perior degree of meekness and lowliness of mind. Meek- 
ness is the true dignity of a Christian minister, whether 
bishop or pastor, — -for this plain reason, because no 
other dignity was required or possessed by Jesus Christ. 
But, next, the apostle addresses those who were younger : 
"Likewise, ye younger" ministers, who may be like 
Timothy or Titus, " submit yourselves unto the elder,"" 
— to those whose age and experience qualify them to 
act as superintendants of the church, to maintain disci- 
pline and Christian order. " Yea, all of you," private 
Christians as well as pastors, " be subject to one ano- 
ther, and be clothed with Humility ,, as indispensably 
necessary to that required mutual subjection which be- 
cometh saints. Now where Humility thus reigns 
throughout a Christian society, " the multitude of them 
that believe will be of one heart and of one soul." And 
those amongst them, whom the Great Shepherd entrusts 
with talents of various kinds, may be safely employed, 
and regularly trained for public usefulness, as the pro- 
vidence of God may open the way. God never designs 
to employ, in his service, a novice who is lifted up with 



ON HUMILITY. 

pride ; but he will put honour upon him who is clothed 
with Humility ; and whether he be a private Christian 
or hold any office in the church of Christ, he shall live 
to bless the world, 

4. Humility endears man to his Maker. " Thus saith 
the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is 
my footstool : Where is the house that ye build unto 
me ? And where is the place of my rest ? For all 
those things hath mine hand made, and all those things 
have been, saith the Lord : But to this man will I look, 
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and 
trembleth at my word." (Isaiah lxvi. 1, 2.) God has 
one favourite habitation. His chosen, his much-loved 
abode is the heart of the lowly. Of such an one he 
declares, " This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell ; 
for I have desired it." The Father and the Son will 
love him, and will come unto him, and make their abode 
with him. The sighs and groans of the humble will be 
no less grateful unto him, than the loftiest praises of 
angels and archangels, who " laud and magnify his holy 
name/'' God will impart unto him larger communica- 
tions of grace, and bless him with brighter manifestations 
of his presence, and a deeper baptism of his Spirit, and 
a fuller enjoyment of that " perfect love, that casteth 
out fear." He will supply all his need according to his 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He will give him grace 
according to his day ; consoling him in affliction, suc- 
couring him in temptation, strengthening him in weak- 
ness, and bringing him off more than conqueror. The 
humble shall dwell for ever in the presence of God. 

Seeing then that Christian Humility is such a singu- 
larly excellent grace, and that the possession of it is of 

2 a 2 



364 SERMON XI. 

such deep importance, it cannot be unprofitable in con- 
clusion to shew, 

III. The Best Means of preserving it, and 

OF INCREASING IN IT. 

1. Know yourselves. Pride is the offspring of igno- 
rance. Yet you cannot more deeply offend a proud 
man, than by establishing that truth in reference to 
himself, — by pointing out his own ignorance to him. 
But Humility springs from wisdom, and is found where- 
soever there is a correct and sound understanding. It 
is the result of the best kind of knowledge, the know- 
ledge of ourselves. If you wish then to preserve and 
increase in Humility, keep your eye upon your own 
heart, and you will make wonderful discoveries. Look 
within yourselves ; look through yourselves. By the 
grace of God, acquire the habit of examining every 
temper and motive as it arises and influences the mind ; 
and then what is wrong will be soon corrected, or what 
would be wrong will be prevented without much diffi- 
culty. Watch yourselves with the same vigilance that 
you would watch an enemy; and with the: same suspi- 
cion that a jealous person watches his neighbour. Watch 
always ; for you will never know your own heart by a 
hasty and occasional glance; it is only by a close 
and keen inspection that you will thoroughly obtain this 
knowledge. The light and influence of the Holy Spirit 
will, of course, be always needed ; for " without him 
you can do nothing." But being led by him, you shall 
be enabled daily to take up this cross of habitual self- 
examination, till you discover the depths of inbred sin, 
and are brought unto him whose blood can make the un- 
holiest sinner pure. And, after your eyes have seen this 



ON HUMILITY. 365 

great salvation, by steadfast watchfulness you will per- 
ceive so many weaknesses and infirmities, as will daily 
prove a source of humiliation, and convince you more 
deeply of your utter nothingness, and that Christ is all 
in all. 

2. Know your station in the church of God. " Lord," 
says David, " my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes 
lofty : Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or 
in things too high for me." (Psalm cxxxiii. 1.) Every one 
that truly knows himself, will in this matter imitate the 
excellent example of David ; he will abide in his proper 
station, and never attempt to meddle with things that are 
beyond his reach. He will not become, to use the ex- 
pression of St. John, a prating Diotrephes, " a man full 
of words, loving to have the pre-eminence ;" but he will 
think it an honour of which he is not worthy to be even 
"a door-keeper in the house of God." God has so vari- 
ously and so suitably dispensed his gifts to the several 
members of the church universal, — and the same remark 
may be applied to many individual churches, — that 
there would be no lack of wisdom or efficiency for any 
useful purpose, if only every one " knew his calling, and 
would therein abide." But when any member removes 
from his proper station, it sometimes requires the united 
wisdom and care of all the rest to keep him from doing 
mischief; instead of combining and employing all their 
energies in the sole work of enlarging the kingdom of 
the Redeemer amongst the sons of men. Every one 
who gets out of his appointed sphere of action, is open 
to numerous temptations to pride : While he who only 
doeth that which his heavenly Father hath ordained, is 

As safe from danger, as from fear, 
Since love, Almighty love, is near. 



366 SEltMON XI. 

3. Would you preserve and increase Humility of 
heart, never allow of self-complacency. A vain thought? 
indulged for a moment, may lead to an eternity of woe. 
" I hate vain thoughts, 1 ' saith the Psalmist, " but thy 
law do I love. 11 On various occasions, the adversary of 
souls will suggest numerous thoughts to the mind, that 
would, if encouraged, introduce or minister to pride. 
When he can no otherwise overcome, he will endeavour 
to make the grace, which has been received, a means of 
effecting the ruin of the soul, by promoting secret vanity 
of mind, which he knows full well will immediately grieve 
the Spirit of God. Of how much importance then is it 
to reject every thought that would lead to boasting, the 
instant it is presented ; and to be always careful to 
" ascribe unto God the glory due unto his name I 11 
Sincerely and cheerfully acknowledge, that, whatever 
good you possess, or are the instrument of doing, the sole 
glory belongs to the great and ever-blessed Jehovah. 
"Yet not I," said Paul, "but the grace of God that 
was in me. 11 Ever feel a deep conviction of that truth, 
and you are safe and happy. 

4. When your soul is most happy in God, and enjoys 
most of the divine presence, then is the season to draw a 
three-fold comparison, with a view to your increasing 
Humility : 

(1.) Compare your very best state and actions with 
your vast and extensive privileges. Turn to the epistles 
of SuPaul, and to the first epistle of St. John, and see 
what it is to be a Christian. He who lives up to his 
privileges, enjoys all that is promised in the deepest por- 
tions of holy writ, and obeys all that is commanded in 
the gospel of God our Saviour. Consider what peculiar 
advantages you have been favoured with, for a long 



ON HUMILITT. 367 

series of years, It is not one of the least, that you have 
had your privileges exhibited in a clear manner, by 
those who have preached the gospel unto you with the 
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. " The whole 
counsel of God," as it relates to believers, has been de- 
clared unto you; and you have been continually ex- 
horted to " grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Compare then what 
you are, with what you might have been had you always 
been faithful ; and you will not fail to be humbled, even 
on the mount, where you may have the most favoured 
views of the glory of the Son of God. 

(2.) Compare yourselves at such a season with those 
who, without enjoying greater advantages, have far ex- 
ceeded you in piety and usefulness. What a list of 
worthies may be here called to remembrance ! A 
Fletcher, a Walsh, a Brainerd, a Pearce, a Bramwell ; 
and of devout women, a Bosanquet, a Rogers, a Cooper. 
Recollect how they lived, and loved, and laboured, and 
prayed, and died. Are you more holy, and fervent, 
and devout than they ? Do you, by waiting upon the 
Lord, in a more vigorous manner than they were wont 
to do, " mount up with wings as eagles ;" and with 
greater alacrity, " run without weariness ;" and with 
greater energy, U press forwards without fainting ?" Or, 
instead of rising higher on the wings of faith and love, 
do your soarings scarcely reach their sinkings ? — It is 
then too soon for you to be high-minded. Wait till you 
get more grace, before you venture so much as to lift 
up your mouth from the dust, either in the presence of 
God, or of his people amongst whom you dwell. Yea, 
peradventure, without having recourse to those saints 
" who being dead, yet speak" unto us, in the records of 



368 SERMON XI. 

their lives, you know some in the same Society with 
yourselves, who have commenced their Christian career 
much later than you, and yet you see, (are you not 
inwardly ashamed on account of your own lukewarmness 
and unprofitableness ?) that they are now holier and 
happier and more useful Christians than you. 

(3.) Compare your best with your worst state. It is 
deeply to be lamented, that the general unfaithfulness of 
Christians makes such a comparison possible. O when 
shall the day come, when the word urifaitliful shall be 
unknown in its application to the Christian character ? 
But since it is so commonly met with in the present state 
of the church, it may be well to improve, as far as we can, 
such a deplorable evil, by shewing that, on account of it, 
there ought to be great humblings of soul. Recollect 
then, when you have any special joyous manifestation of 
God to the heart, what a poor unprofitable creature you 
have been ! What coldness has sometimes chilled your 
spirit ! How wanting in fervour your devotions ! Of 
how many backslidings in heart Godjhas been a witness ! 
What opportunities of usefulness you have missed ; or 
only improved in a partial manner ! Compare the pre- 
sent with the past ; and instead of being lifted up be- 
cause of what you now receive, you will be overwhelmed 
with shame, and at a loss how sufficiently to adore the 
riches of the grace of God. 

These comparisons will be especially profitable in your 
most joyous and happy hours. Yet will it be needful 
to guard against discouragement of mind; always re- 
membering, that, whatever may have been your conduct 
hitherto, 

Now you may give your wandrings o'er, 
By giving God your heart. 



ON HUMILITY. 369 

5. Invariably humble the soul before God, for every 
failing of which you may be conscious. It is not enough 
that you perceive an error, whether of judgment, which 
may be the case with the holiest of saints ; or of temper 
and conduct, which may happen to those who are not 
delivered from the carnal mind ; you ought invariably 
to confess that error, or that sin, in secret upon your 
knees before God. And if you have, by any mistake or 
sin, wronged or injured your fellow-creatures, it is your 
bounden duty to acknowledge it to them also, and to ask 
their forgiveness, while you endeavour to make all the 
reparation that is in your power. " God," says Brainerd, 
" has given me that disposition, that if a man had done 
me a hundred injuries, and I, though ever so much pro- 
voked to it, have done him one, I feel disposed, and 
heartily willing, humbly to confess my fault to him, and 
on my knees to ask forgiveness of him, though, at the 
same time, he should justify himself in all the injuries he 
has done me, and should only make use of my humble 
confession to blacken my character the more, and repre- 
sent me as the only person guilty; yea, though he 
should, as it were, insult me, and say, he knew all this 
before, and that I was making work for repentance." — 
An erring judgment only, while the heart enjoys "per- 
fect love," is a source of very deep humiliation, though 
it brings no guilt ; because it shews how deeply man is 
fallen, and how awfully his faculties are impaired, so 
that even Christianity, glorious as it is, cannot restore 
his understanding to that perfection and vigour it ori- 
ginally had, when he came from the hands of God. If 
then, besides humbling yourself before men when that is 
a duty, you never enter your closet, without acknow- 
ledging every failing or transgression, that you can re- 



370 SERMON XI. 

member to have occurred since the last hour you were 
there waiting upon God, you will never leave that hal- 
lowed place without an increase of humility, as well as an 
increase of wisdom and grace, to preserve you from any 
similar evil in your future intercourse with mankind. 

Get deeper piety. " The highest flames," says Bishop 
Taylor, " are the most tremulous ; and so the most 
holy and eminent religious persons are more full of 
aw fulness, and fear, and modesty, and Humility. 1 ' On 
this ground it appears, that saints will be more humble 
in heaven than they are on earth ; because they will 
then be much nearer to God, and have a higher degree 
of perfection than can be attained in the present state. 
The " perfect love 1 ' which they have on earth, shall be 
vastly increased in heaven ; hence they will feel more 
delightful abasement of spirit, though not accompanied 
with any painful recollections, before the throne of glory, 
than they ever experience now in their deepest hum- 
blings before the throne of grace. Follow, therefore, 
holiness ; seek earnestly for purity of heart. " Ask, 
and ye shall receive" the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and 
as it is " his good pleasure" that you should " be per- 
fect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect," lie 
will " work in you all that good pleasure of his good- 
ness, and the work of faith with power." Be holy, and 
obedient ; and you will be far less in danger of pride, 
and will increase abundantly more in Humility, than if 
you followed Christ at a distance, and proved unfaith- 
ful to his grace. The holiest is the humblest saint ; 
therefore, he who has the largest share of purity on 
earth, shall be the highest exalted in Heaven, and be 
the nearest to the Redeemer's throne in glory for ever- 
more. 



SERMON XII. 
HOPE FOR THE PENITENT 



J, even 7, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake y 
and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance ; let us 
plead together; and declare thou, that tlwu mayest be justified. — 
Isaiah xliii. 25, 26. 

These words are addressed to penitent sinners, who 
are mourning before God on account of their trans- 
gressions. To all such characters I joy to bring this 
morning a message of mercy and peace. " Fear not ; 
for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy."" 
" Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of 
the Lord is now rising upon thee." Let the broken in 
heart wait for the consolation of Israel, full of believing 
expectation, knowing that " the Lord, whom they seek, 
will come suddenly to his temple." Let them " that 
tremble at the word of the Lord," hear his word, in the 
spirit of prayer, nothing doubting but that this is the 
hour in which God will speak peace to their souls. The 
text itself will warrant such an expectation: And let 
them also remember, that the Christian Sabbath is 
especially " the day which the Lord hath made" for 
the manifestation of his mercy, through Him " who died 
for our offences, and was raised again for our Justifi- 
cation. 1 '' Could we behold at one view the wonders of 



37& SERMON XI [. 

grace that will this day be displayed throughout the 
whole Christian church, we should see, that, in the vari- 
ous parts of the earth, some hundreds of sinners will be 
justified through faith in the blood of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. And why then should not pardon come to the 
guilty in this congregation ? Is there no mercy for the 
Manassehs, and the Magdalenes, and the Sauls amongst 
us ? Yea, the Lord God waiteth now to be gracious, 
and is exalted to magnify his pardoning love. " Be- 
hold ! now is the accepted time : Behold ! now is the 
day of salvation."" 

Listen then, O mourners in Zion, 

I. To a declaration of your sins and deserts ; 

II. To the proclamation of a free and full forgive- 
ness ; and 

III. To the invitation urging you to accept the prof- 
fered mercy. 

I. I am to publish a declaration of your sins and 
deserts. 

The words immediately preceding the promise in the 
text are these : — " Thou hast made me to serve with 
thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. * 
What a heavy charge was this, preferred by the 
Most High against his ancient people the Jews ; the 
people whom " he had formed for himself, that they 
might shew forth his praise !" And are you not 
conscious, that this affecting charge contains but too 
just a representation of your conduct ? It is then 
highly fitting, that you should repent ; it becomes you 
to feel poverty of spirit : And that you may be tho- 
roughly sensible how greatly you have " sinned, and 
come short of the glory of God," before I apply the 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 373 

promise of pardon, I shall lead you to an investigation 
of your whole life, that your sins may be set in order 
before your eyes. 

1. You are a sinner by nature* " Sinner" is your 
name, and sin your natural inheritance. u Behold," 
says the Psalmist, " I was shapen in iniquity, and in 
sin did my mother conceive me." Soon as you had an 
existence, you had a principle in the heart which was 
enmity against that Divine Being to whom you were 
indebted for that existence. You no sooner breathed 
God's air, than you were God's enemy. That principle 
of evil is called, by the holy and inspired apostle Paul, 
" a carnal mind /" — not merely a carnal understanding, or 
a carnal will, or carnal affections ; — but a carnal mind, 
intimating that the zvhole mind, in all its faculties, and 
affections, and passions, is fleshly and corrupt. From 
hence have arisen all those subsequent evils that have 
appeared in the life ; for it is the mind that influences 
and directs the actions of man. What a source of 
grief does this reflection open to the soul ! It is not 
enough, then, that you repent on account of actual 
transgressions ; you must mourn over the depravity of 
the heart. If your sorrow be that " godly sorrow 
which worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented 
of," it will be accompanied with deep humiliation of 
spirit, on account of your fall in Adam. And although 
you ought not, like Job, " to curse the day of your 
birth," since, if you find mercy of the Lord, you may 
rejoice that ever you were born ; yet in tracing the sins 
of your heart and life, it is needful to recollect the 
beginning of your existence, because it was the begin- 
ning of your sinfulness. See then that there is no 
cause of boasting of your lineage and descent ; for 



374 SERMON XII. 

what are we all but a sinful race, sprung from the 
original transgressor, who had most awfully " departed 
from the living God ?" 

C X. But now let me entreat you, to survey the history 
of your past life, and to recollect your actual trans- 
gression. " Foolishness,'"' says Solomon, "is bound 
in the heart of a child." Was not the truth of this 
maxim early manifested in your conduct ? What vani- 
ties amused your mind ! What petty trifles occasioned 
vexations, and peevishness, and fretfulness ! How often 
were you unkind and disobedient to parents, or friends, 
and impatient to be freed from those restraints which 
they laid upon you ! What evil tempers, what sullen- 
ness, and perverseness, and gloom were evidenced, so 
far as you were allowed to manifest them ! And per- 
haps thoughts and purposes of revenge, or resolves of 
what you would do, a few years hence, in spite of 
all authority, lodged in your heart ! Cast your eye 
over the immense volumes filled with the sins of your 
youth ! How giddy, thoughtless, trifling ! How head- 
strong and turbulent! How justly characterized as 
being " lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God !" 
What vain or lustful desires governed the heart ! What 
follies consumed all your leisurs hours ! Imagination 
amused you with a thousand painted scenes, and you 
purposed many things ; but never purposed thoroughly 
to turn to God, or never truly performed it. And as to 
your riper years, whether you be now in the meridian or 
decline of life, what do they present, but the continued 
unvarying effort of a worldly mind to provide for the 
body, without any due concern for the salvation of the 
soul ! Nay, even the body is but miserably cared for, if 
we mind nothing more than obtaining food and raiment 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 375 

for it in the present life, and take no serious thought to 
provide for its future glorification, by seeking in good 
earnest for present purity of heart. But this is the 
way of the world. " They spend their days in mirth," 
or in care ; " and in a moment go down to the grave. " 
Thus have you lived, " without God and without hope 
in the world :" Atheists in heart and life, though 
Christians in name and profession. Tell me, which of 
the laws of God have you not broken? When our 
Lord repeated a part of the commandments of the 
moral law to a young man who applied unto him for 
instruction, but who evidently knew not himself, he 
replied, " All these have I kept from my youth up." 
But, alas for you, O guilty sinner !, your answer must 
be exactly the reverse : All the commandments have I 
broken from my youth up ; "every thought of the imagi- 
nation of my heart has been evil, only evil, and that con- 
tinually." " Who then can tell how oft he offendeth ?" 
Will you attempt to compute the number of your sins ? 
Go, count the drops of water in the ocean, or the sands 
that are its barrier on the shore. Sins meet you in every 
direction ; they have been committed every day, every 
hour. I know not what you can do, but lay your hand 
upon your mouth, or cry Guilty, Guilty, before thee 
O Lord ! Could the sins of your heart, — evil thoughts, 
evil desires, evil designs, and evil tempers, — together 
with the sins of your tongue, and of your life, be seen by 
you, as they are seen by the infinitely holy God, how 
would you " abhor yourselves, and repent as in dust 
and ashes ?" 

3. But this is only a partial view of your undeserv- 
ings ; for there are also sins of omission that demand 
repentance, In this manner God spake unto his ancient 



376 SERMON XII. 

people : " Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob ; thou 
hast been weary of me, O Israel !" Is not this strictly 
true in your case ? How often have you neglected 
prayer to the Most High ; perhaps for days, or weeks, 
or even years together ! Witness, ye deserted closets, 
against the multitude of prayerless Christians, so called, 
who seldom, or never, " bow their knees unto the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ." What a shameful thing is 
it, for a man to live like a beast, without any sense, or 
acknowledgment, of his dependance upon God ! A man 
that lives without prayer, is sure to be damned ; since 
salvation is only given to those that " call on the name 
of the Lord." And what guilt have you incurred by 
neglecting the book of God ! As though the holy scrip- 
tures, — which it required ages to complete, which con- 
tain the most important and useful information, which 
reveal God's method of saving sinners, and which God 
himself inspired, — were not worthy of your attention ! 
You have read novels, travels, and history ; you have 
perused biography ; — but you have seldom deigned to 
cast a glance, and never to shed a tear, over that sacred 
book which contains the records of time and of eternity. 
Nor are broken Sabbaths among the least of your sins. 
How many Sabbath-days have you loitered away in 
idleness ; or spent in seeking your own pleasure, or in 
performing your own business ! Behold ! You have said 
of the day of the Lord, " What a weariness is it !"" and 
yet have hoped to enter heaven,, where eternity itself is 
a Sabbath ! See, " the deceitfulness of the heart," and 
" the deceitfulness of sin." A.s to relative duties, they 
have scarcely ever been thought of, much less punctu- 
ally performed. No family altar, no family instruction, 
no familv Christianity ; a baptized household, but all 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 377 

leading mere Heathen lives; and amongst them all, 
Christ has not been so much as named, or worshipped, 
or adored. 

4. Still, however, there has been, at times, some little 
outward profession of Christianity, which brings us to 
reflect on another species of transgression, — your re- 
ligious sins. By such a strange expression I mean, the 
sins which have accompanied the performance of the 
duties of religion. " This people draweth nigh unto me 
with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; 
but their heart is far from me." How characteristic are 
these words of that devotion which you have presented 
in the house of God ! Ought it not to make you almost 
shudder with horror, to reflect on the impiety of your 
most solemn prayers ? The agonizing cry, the deeply 
important petition — " Lord, have mercy upon us ! — 
Christ, have mercy upon us ! — Lord, have mercy upon 
us !" — has come from your lips, when your heart has 
been as cold as marble, and you have not had the least 
sensibility of your guilt, or of your exposure to that 
misery from which nothing but the mercy of Christ could 
save you. And in what a manner have you joined in 
the confessions of the church; neither understanding, 
nor considering, nor feeling what you have said ! Why, 
your religion has been the grossest kind qfirreligion ! 
But little better than a solemn mockery of God; a crime 
of which even fallen angels are not guilty ! They feel 
their need of grace, while they scorn to ask it ; but never 
do they in a suppliant manner, hypocritically implore 
mercy from the hands of God ! As to the preached 
word, it has made but little impression on the mind ; it 
has not converted the soul. According to the number 
of sermons you have heard without being saved, so often 

% B 



378 SERMON xir. 

have you " rejected the counsel of God. 11 It is, there- 
fore, manifest to the conscience, that there is no good 
work, or word, or thought ; no, not one, on which you 
can rely for salvation. 

Excluded is your every boast, 
Your glory swallowed up in shame. 

5. The aggravating circumstances that have attended 
your transgressions, must not be forgotten. Your sins 
have been committed, not in those " times of ignorance 
which God winked at," but since the days when he 
" hath commanded all men every where to repent," and 
even while that charge to repent has been sounding in 
your ears. The very name you bear, — " Christian, 11 — 
leaves you wholly inexcusable ; for it ought to have led 
you to inquire, " What is Christianity ?" and to have 
been unceasing in your supplications for the Holy Spi- 
rit, to make you a Christian in deed and in truth. The 
Christian's book was at hand ; the Bible was every 
where to be met with ; and had you been providentially 
deprived of every other help, it alone, prayerfully used, 
would have been sufficient to lead you savingly to the 
knowledge of God. But besides the written word, unto 
you has " the gospel been preached with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven. 11 Ah ! Consider how 
often, and how powerfully that "good Spirit 11 has been 
striving with you 

Through many long rebellious years. 

" Oh that you had hearkened unto God, and walked 
in his ways ! He would soon have subdued your ene- 
mies, and turned his hand against your adversaries. 
The haters of the Lord should have submitted them- 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 379 

selves unto him ; but your time should have endured 
for ever. He would have fed you also with the finest 
of the wheat ; and with honey out of the rock would he 
have satisfied thee." (Psalm lxxxu 13—16.) If to every 
one who hears the gospel, God saith," " Remember now 
thy Creator in the days of thy youth," and if, with the 
word, the Eternal Spirit is given to enable men to prove 
obedient to that command, then may we conclude, that 
every one in such circumstances might be converted to 
God in the days of his youth, were it not for one sin, 
which is indeed the great crying sin of the whole world, 
the sin of grieving the Holy Spirit of God. Had it 
not been for your own aggravated offence, in u resisting 
the Holy Ghost ;" instead of being a mourning penitent, 
you might have been a rejoicing believer, I will not say 
at this hour, but many years ago. O what happiness is 
lost ! What time is lost ! What opportunities of use- 
fulness are gone ! Eternity has swallowed up all the 
past days and years of your life ; and you can only re- 
collect, what you cannot recal, with the bitterest anguish 
of spirit, and the deepest sorrow and contrition of heart. 
It is by no means unbecoming in you, in such an hour 
of grief as this ought to be, to " smite upon your 
breast, 1 ' while you groan, " God be merciful to me a 
sinner I 11 

6. But after all that has been said, the great master- 
sin has not yet been distinctly mentioned. We have 
seen the boughs and branches and fruits of sin, but we 
come now to expose its roots, that are more hidden from 
human view, and that strike so deeply, and lay so fast a 
hold upon the sinner's heart. The sin from which all 
other sins proceed, is unbelief'. The devils are not unbe- 
lievers ; and damned spirits of our race are not unbe- 



580 SEHMON XII. 

lievers ; but unbeliever is the true characteristic of every 
unregenerate man upon the face of the earth. His " evil 
heart is a heart of unbelief." " He makes God a liar, - * 
by " saying in his heart, There is no God" — denying 
his being, or his influence : Or, " Tush ! thou God wilt 
not require it," — and so denying his providence, or his 
retributive justice : The infidelity of professed Chris- 
tians exceeds that of the Jews of old ; it has one peculiar 
feature, which demonstrates that unbelieving Christians 
are the most guilty unbelievers that have ever existed in 
the universe Read the sin of Israel, in Psalm lxxviii. 
19 — 22 : " They believed not in God, and trusted not in 
his salvation. Yea, they spake against God ; they said, 
Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ? Behold ! he 
smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the 
streams overflowed! Can he give bread also? can he 
provide Jlesh for his people V But while they thus 
spake, — " Can he give bread ? Can he give flesh ? Can 
he furnish a table in this wilderness ?" — did they assemble 
together in one congregation, and at the same hour hy- 
pocritically profess to believe "in God the Father 
Almighty" as able to do all those things ? Did they 
repeat over their Belief in him, at the same hour that 
they made those unbelieving inquiries ? But behold, you 
have professed, ignorantly, yet falsely, professed to be- 
lieve in God, and in Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, and 
" in the forgiveness of sins," and yet in reality, by unbe- 
lief, you have rejected God and Christ, denied the in- 
fluences of the Holy Ghost, and the possibility of 
obtaining pardon in this present life ! O what guilt ! — 
The proof of the existence of unbelief in the heart, is at 
once easy and convincing, plain yet powerful. " He 
that believeth," saith the scripture, " shall be saved ;" 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 381 

whence it follows, that he who is not saved is an unbe- 
liever. He has no right faith in Christ. For " he that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that 
foelieveth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath 
of God abideth on him." (John iii. S6.) 

7. Here then, my guilty brethren, you discover at 
once both the source of your former crimes, and the 
cause of your present wretchedness ; and how necessary 
it is, that when " the Spirit convinces of sin," he should 
especially convince " of unbelief." Unbelief first made 
you guilty, and it keeps you in a guilty state: While its 
power remains, you will be shut up as in a prison, from 
which you cannot escape. If Jesus Christ invites you, 
saying, " Come unto me ;" it is only by faith that you 
can come ; if he be willing to bestow pardon, it is only 
by faith that you can receive it. Let not a sight and a 
sense of your guilt, as it hath now been set before you, 
discourage your souls ; but let it make Christ and his sal- 
vation the more welcome, by how much the more you feel 
your own lost and ruined condition without an interest 
in his blood. Though burdened and heavy laden, still 
encourage hope, and cherish expectation of a present 
pardon, crying incessantly, " Lord, give me faith !" — 
Lord, increase my faith, while I proceed 

II. To proclaim free and full forgiveness in the name 
of Jesus. " I, I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions 
for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.*' 
There is nothing but encouragement in these gracious 
words ; they are pregnant with blessings ; they make 
known " mercy for all, immense, and free.'" The Pro- 
miser, the promise itself, its kind application, and the 
2b3 



382 



SERMON XII. 



basis on which it rests, open to us four sources of the 
most abundant joy and consolation. 

1. The Author of the promise. " I, I am he that 
blotteth out thy transgressions." Mourning sinners, do 
you know that voice ? It is the voice of " the Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, pardoning iniquity, 
and transgression, and sin." He doth not commission a 
multitude of the heavenly host, to carry glad tidings of 
great joy to all who mourn over their transgressions ; 
neither does he merely command the ministers of his word 
to speak comfortably unto them ; but from his lofty 
throne he himself speaks unto their hearts. Will he 
render unto them according to their works ? While they 
tremble in his presence, will he thunder forth, " Depart 
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire ?" No ! Such a 
sentence never proceeded from the throne of grace against 
any one who approached it for mercy. Jesus is Jesus 
still ; and though he is exalted at the right hand of the 
Majesty on high, he remembers that he is exalted to save, 
and not to destroy. It is the joy of' Christ to pardon a 
guilty sinner. He remembers his agony in the garden^ 
and his pangs upon the cross, with a delight none but 
himself can feel, when the blood he poured forth is 
applied by the Spirit to the soul that feels its misery. 
While he neither extenuates the sin of man, nor at all 
excuses his offence, but in the fullest manner admits the 
enormity of his guilt, and of consequence the awful pun- 
ishment that has been deserved, testifying, "Thou hast 
made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me 
with thine iniquities ;" yet when he sees that the sinner 
himself is also "wearied with his iniquities," grace 
drops from his lips, and he declares his readiness to grant 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 383 

the most free, and full, and ample pardon that may be 
required. 

2. Hence the promise in the text is expressed in the 
most cheering language. "I, I am he that blotteth out 
thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins." It 
is not uncommon for the scripture to represent sins as 
debts, an account of which is preserved in the book of 
the creditor. When the debt is paid, the sum is crossed 
over, to intimate that the creditor^ demands are satis- 
fied, and that the debtor is known in that character no 
longer. But, in our text, to point out the free and full 
manner in which God bestows pardon, the significant 
expression, " blotteth out," is used ; the debt is not 
merely crossed, but obliterated, so that the record can 
be read no more. It is not unfrequently the case, that 
penitents feel their mind more particularly burdened with 
some one sin, which appears to them to exceed all the 
rest in magnitude, and for which they fear there is no 
forgiveness. But God Almighty, through the merits of 
his Son Jesus, forgives large debts as well as small. 
What we read in Luke vii. 40 — 42, will illustrate this 
matter. As Jesus sat at meat with a Pharisee, named 
Simon, he said unto him, " Simon, I have somewhat 
to say unto thee. He saith, Master, say on. There was 
a certain creditor which had two debtors : The one owed 
five hundred pence, and the other fifty. -And when they 
had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.'"'' O 
sinner, art thou a five-hundred pence debtor ? And 
hast thou nothing to pay ? Absolutely nothing ? — Then 
here is thy discharge ; my Lord releaseth thee from all 
demands, he "blotteth out" all thy sins. Nor will he 
make any demand on account of thy debt at any future 
day, " he will remember thy sins no more," neither in 



384 SERMON XII. 

time nor in eternity, if henceforward thou " doest that 
which is lawful and right," by " continuing in his good- 
ness" that thy soul may live. " O ye that fear the Lord, 
trust in the Lord ; for with the Lord there is mercy .r 
and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall 
redeem Israel from all his iniquities." 

3. But still the penitent sinner will reason and say, 
" Is it possible that the promise which is now explained 
" can belong to me ? Were I like such an one, had I 
" not sinned more than such an individual who is seeking 
"salvation, I could venture to hope that in time I might 
" be pardoned ! But I ! what have I done ? Ah ! what 
" a guilty wretch ! I am not fit to live upon earth, how 
" then can I ever hope to enter heaven ? My sins are 
" of such an aggravating nature. And then again my 
" heart : — Ah ! my heart is ' very wickedness ;' hard 
" as a rock, and so unholy that it is nothing but pollu- 
" tion ? Are not ' the mercies of the Lord clean gone 
u for ever ?' Is not mine a lost case ? Dare I hope ?" 
— Thou mourner in Zion, thou shalt; surely be saved ! 
Thy self-despair makes it evident, that " thou art not 
far from the kingdom of God." God will soon give unto 
thee "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and 
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." I will 
propound unto thee one question ; hearken, and answer 
thou me. If the Lord Jesus were to come down from 
that resplendent throne where he sits at the right hand 
of the Father ; — -if he were to draw a veil over his glo- 
rified humanity, and to moderate the lustre of its bright- 
ness, so that mortals should be able again to look upon 
his countenance ; — and were he to stand in the hallowed 
place which his ambassador now occupies, and to address 
this solemn assembly ; — on whom would he cast a benig- 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 

riant smile, and whom would he select from all this au- 
dience, as the object of his special favour and regard? 
Thee, O proud blasphemer, who " hatest knowledge ?" 
Thee, O haughty Pharisee, who art " going about to 
establish thy own righteousness ?" -Nay, but he would 
bless and save thee, O unbelieving Thomas ! Or thee, 
O weeping Mary ! Unto thee would he say : " I, I am 
he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not 
remember thy sins." 

Thou guilty child of Adam, Jesus Christ is here in 
his spiritual presence, and by the power of his Spirit ; 
and sure 1 am, that he is now speaking to thy heart. The 
promise in my text is thy promise. Quite as much so, as 
if thy name had been expressed in it. I can give a solid 
and sufficient reason that may satisfy thee that this at 
least is spoken for thy encouragement, if thou fearest to 
claim any other word of consolation. The promises of 
God are just suited to the condition of those to whom they 
are made. Now does not this promise just suit thy 
state ? Does it not answer to it as exactly as if it were 
written expressly for thee ? That correspondence of mi- 
sery on thy part, and of promised mercy on the part of 
God, is thy warrant to embrace it ; from this considera- 
tion let thy soul derive vigour and strength to lay hold 
of it as thine own. Come then ; no longer despair, doubt 
no more ; " be not faithless, but believing." " I say unto 
thee," are the w r ords of Jesus, " thy sins which are 
many are forgiven : Go in peace and sin no more." 

4. The basis on which this promise rests may further 
assure us of the certainty of its fulfilment. " For mine 
own sake, I will not remember thy sins." There is 
nothing a sinner so much reasons about as his unworthi- 
ness, when he is coming to Christ. He makes it the 



386 SERMON XII. 

ground of all its doubtings; whereas that is the very 
thing that makes Christ a suitable Saviour unto him. God 
forgives the guilty for his own sake, and not for the sake 
of their deservings. " For my name's sake will I defer 
mine anger ; and for my praise will I refrain from thee, 
that I cut thee not off. For mine own sake, even for 
mine own sake, will I do it ; for how should my name 
be polluted ? I will not give my glory unto another/' 
(Isaiah xlviii. 9 — 11.) A striking passage to the same 
effect we have in the prophet Ezekiel : (xxxvi :) " Thus 
saith the Lord God ; I do not this for your sakes, O 
house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye 
have profaned among the Heathen whither ye went. 
Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your 
doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in 
your own sight, for your iniquities and for your abom- 
inations. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and yc 
shall be clean ; from all your filthiness, and from all your 
idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give 
you, and a new spirit will I put within you : And I will 
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give 
you a heart of flesh. But not for your sakes do I this, 
saith the Lord God, be it known unto you : Be ashamed 
and coi founded for your own ways, O house of Israel !" 
God pardons the believing penitent for his mercy's 
sake. It is the property of the Eternal Jehovah " always 
to have mercy," agreeably to the declaration of his writ- 
ten word : " Whensoever the wicked man turneth 
away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and 
doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save 
his soul alive." It is the shewing of mercy that exalts 
the love of God, Nothing can increase the willingness of 
God to pardon ; because as he is u good," that is, good- 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 387 

ness itself, pure, unchangeable, everlasting love, he must 
always be " ready to forgive all that call upon him. ,, 
Yet that principle of benevolence towards guilty man 
is capable of various manifestations ; and every act of free, 
unmerited grace in justifying the ungodly, furnishes a 
new display of its glory. The salvation of every penitent 
sinner brings an eternity of glory to God. Now God is 
concerned for his own honour ; he, therefore, will save 
all that come unto him, through his Son Jesus Christ. 
Six thousand years have nearly elapsed since the fall of 
man, and amongst all the generations that have lived and 
died during those revolving ages, not an instance has 
been known of God's refusing to pardon a penitent sin- 
ner, who believed on his Son. And shalt thou be the 
first that Christ will abandon ? Will God, " who spared 
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, that 
with him he might freely give us all things," withhold 
from thee that pardon, which, at his feet, thou art groan- 
ing to obtain ? Why, if thou wert to perish, while 
coming to God in the way he himself hath appointed, 
what a triumph would it afford to all the powers of dark- 
ness ? Though thou justly deservest hell on thine own 
account, yet if God were to banish thee to that place of 
torment, after he hath given thee " repentance unto 
life," and while thou art by his own Spirit led to him 
through the merits of his Son, the legions of fallen spirits 
would rejoice more in thy single destruction, than in the 
ruin of myriads of finally impenitent sinners ; because thy 
destruction would tarnish the glory of the mercy of God. 
Fear not then ; but earnestly and unceasingly plead the 
merits and the blood of Jesus, and God will save thee 
for his own sake; for the sake of his mercy, which has 
forgiven millions, and is even at this moment extended 
unto thee. 



388 



SE11M0N XII. 



The Lord God will freely pardon all that believe, for 
his justice sake. What a fine passage of holy writ have 
we in Rom. iii. 23 — 26 I " All have sinned, and come 
short of the glory of God ; being justified freely by his 
grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ; 
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the 
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance 
of God : To declare at this time his righteousness ; that 
he might be just, and the justifier of him which be- 
lieveth in Jesus." These words shew the accomplish- 
ment of that prophecy spoken by the mouth of Isaiah 
concerning the Redeemer : " The Lord is well pleased 
for his righteousness sake; he will magnify the law, 
and make it honourable." (Isaiah xlii. 21.) The law is 
made honourable by maintaining its justice ; and by 
making the very method of pardoning the guilty, a dis- 
play of its holiness, and justice and goodness. Christ, 
therefore, "magnified the law, r> not only in his holy 
life, by keeping it in every point ; but more especially 
in his sacrificial death, by paying the penalty which we 
had incurred by our numerous transgressions. Christ 
is emphatically the just one, for he became just, that 
he "might become mercful; he paid our debts that he 
might have the right of remitting our offences. w My 
just servant," saith the Father," shall justify many, for 
lie shall bear their iniquities? (Isaiah liii, 11.) On the 
ground then of the all-sufficient atonement of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, it is for the honour of the justice of God, 
to pardon the guilty, the moment he confesses his sins, 
and truly believes upon the righteous Saviour. Who 
could ever have conceived that justice should have been 
glorified, by sheathing her sword, and taking the golden 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 389 

sceptre from the hands of mercy; and that justice 
Itself should have held it out to the sinner, that he 
might touch and live ? Yet so it is, in the wonderful 
economy of grace to man. " Righteousness" herself 
" looks down from heaven" on every penitent, not to 
demand vengeance, but to exercise her right qf blessing. 
As she looks, " the Lord gives that which is good. 11 And 
when Jehovah bows his heavens and comes down in the 
power of his Spirit, justice is his gracious harbinger, 
for " righteousness goes before him; 11 and as he passes 
by, righteousness proclaims his name, " The Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious f and righteousness up- 
raises the drooping sinner, and " sets him in the way of 
his Maker's steps. 11 Justice pardons ; justice sanctifies ; 
and justice glorifies for evermore. This is an inspired 
prayer : " For thy righteousness sake, bring my soul 
out of trouble. 11 Because God is just, he declares, " I 
will be merciful to their unrighteousness ; and their sins, 
and their iniquities will I remember no more. 11 (Heb. 
viii. 12.) 

God is also willing to pardon for his truths sake. 
" As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in 
the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from 
his way and live. 11 All the promises of God's word are 
in accordance with that revelation of his character. To 
cite only one, as a summary of the whole: " Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he 
will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will 
abundantly pardon. 11 Now God will as surely perform 
all his promises as his threatenings ; he will as certainly 
shew mercy to all that turn from their evil ways, as he 
will punish, with everlasting misery, those, who by con- 



390 SERMON XII. 

timring impenitent " treasure up unto themselves wrath 
against the day of wrath, and revelation of the right- 
eous judgment of God. 1 ' "God," says the Apostle, 
" who cannot lie, hath promised eternal life, before the 
world began," and " hath in due time" more fully 
" manifested" that eternal life in " his word through 
preaching." Hence we now declare unto you, " God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." Thus we see, that " mercy and 
truth have met together ; righteousness and peace have 
kissed each other." (Psalm lxxxv. 10.) We see that as 
the promise rests on a foundation that cannot be shaken^ 
we ought with confidence and joy to receive the glad 
word, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgres- 
sions, for mine own sake, and will not remember thy 
sins." — Let me then, Thirdly, bring forward 

III. The invitation, urging you to accept the prof- 
fered mercy. 

" Put me in remembrance ; let us plead together : 
Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." 

These glorious words invite all the contrite in heart 
into the presence of God. It bids them no longer stand 
in the outward court, nor yet to remain as it were trem- 
bling without the vail ; but to " have boldness to enter 
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," and there before 
him who sitteth between the Cherubim, to prefer their 
requests, assured that he will " fulfil all their petitions." 
In presenting those petitions they have a threefold duty 
to perform : 

1. To state the grounds on which they expect an 
answer : " Put me in remembrance :" 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 391 

2. To urge in humble confidence their requests : 
" Let us plead together.' 1 

3. To claim in strong faith the promised blessing : 
" Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." 

Mourning sinners ! You are now waiting before the 
mercy seat of God. This is his house : It is called 
BethesdAj because it is the place where he sheweth 
mercy. In this very chapel many a sinner has been 
forgiven : And the cloud of the Divine Glory still 
abideth with us. Here we have the ark of the Lord, 
and the sacred gospel ; here we have the true candle- 
stick, and the priests of the Sanctuary who cause the 
light to shine day and night in the temple ; here we offer 
the pure incense of prayer and praise ; and here the 
" Lord commandeth his blessing to rest, even life for 
evermore." You feel your guilt, are desiring pardon, 
and expecting an answer of peace : Draw nigh, and state 
the grounds on which your expectation is founded. 
" Put me in remembrance," saith the Lord. Thus he 
speaks in compassion to our infirmities, and to encourage 
us to come " with boldness to the throne of grace, that 
we may obtain mercy." 

Put him in remembrance of Gethsemane and the cross. 
Say unto him : — " Have not I heard that thou, the 
Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of 
the earth," and the " God of the Spirits of all flesh," 
hast " given thyself a ransom for the sins of the world ?" 
O " thou Lord of glory, who sittest on thy throne, 
high and lifted up," and before whom the Seraphim 
" cry, Holy, Holy, Holy,"'' art thou not he " who was 
made in the likeness of sinful flesh ?" Art thou not he 
who " did become obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross?" Is not thy distinguishing name 



392 SERMON XII. 

Immanuel?" Is not "the whole earth full of thy 
glory" as Jesus, the Redeemer of sinners? Wast 
thou not " made a little lower than the angels," who are 
adoring thee as " the Son, whose throne is for ever 
and ever," for " the suffering of death, that, by the 
grace of God, thou mightest taste death for every 
man ?" Didst not thou tread the wine-press of the 
wrath of God in Gethsemane ? Hast thou forgotten 
Gethsemane, when thine own " blood stained all thy 
garments?" Dost thou not remember Calvary,, thine 
own agonies, and powerful intercession for thy mur- 
derers ; and thy giving up of thy ghost ? What mean 
those sacred wounds ? Are they not the everlast- 
ing emblems of thy love to sinners, — to the "chief 
of sinners," even to me ? — By those wounds, and by 
that precious blood which thou hast shed, and by all 
that thou hast ever done for the salvation of a guilty 
world, I plead for mercy. Thou didst die for me. 
Lord, I am the workmanship of thine hands, and this 
guilty soul of mine is the purchase of thy blood. My 
name, and my sins, are all connected with thy name, and 
with thy redemption : And on that ground I venture 
to hope thou wilt not bid me depart without the blessing 
of peace. 

Put your Redeemer in remembrance also of his pro- 
mises. And here I would meet an objection that is 
often a source of great discouragement to awakened 
and mourning sinners. They complain of great dark- 
ness of mind, and such deplorable ignorance, that they 
know not how to pray. They are as one dumb in the 
presence of God, and perhaps can scarcely utter any 
thing more than " God be merciful to me a sinner !" If 
Indeed they can offer no other prayer, that single 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 393 

petition urged in the name of Jesus, would not fail in 
bringing pardon to the heart. But, for the direction 
and encouragement of all such distressed souls, let me 
observe, that the best prayers penitent sinners can 
use are the promises of God. Turn those promises into 
petitions ; and then not only will the language be suit- 
able, but it will be so cheering, that faith will more or 
less spring up in the heart. Take then your Bible into 
the closet, and open on some of the promises made to 
those who repent ; and, falling on your knees, put God 
in remembrance of his own words. — " Lord God, I 
" bring my Charter in my hand. Thus thou hast said, 
" * Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy 
" laden, and I will give you rest.' c Him that cometh 
" unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' 6 Come now, and 
" let us reason together ; though your sins be as scarlet, 
" they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red 
" like crimson, they shall be as wool."* 5 This is the 
" covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, 
" after those days' of disobedience, when they shall 
" turn unto me with all the heart, and with all the soul ; 
" c I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in 
" their hearts ; and I will be to them a God, and they 
" shall be to me a people. For I will be merciful to 
" their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniqui- 
" ties will I remember no more."' 6 Prove me now here- 
" with, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, 
" and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be 
" room enough to receive it.' — These are thine own 
M promises, O thou whose name is, 6 Amen ; Faithful 
"and True:' 'Redeemer;' 'Lord God of Truth:' 
" c The same to-day, yesterday, and for ever;'* and wilt 
*' thou then deny thy own word ? Heinous as my 

2 C 



394 SERMON XTT. 

" offences are, and justly as I deserve to fall into that 
" opening gulph which yawns to receive my wretched 
" soul, can I perish while I cling to thy promises as my 
" only hope ? If I perish, then will it be said, 6 Because 
" he who is called the friend of sinners was not able to 
" save one that was burdened and heavy laden, that 
" came to him on his own invitation, he permitted him 
" to sink under his intolerable load." Then will my 
" crimson sins remain, though I have reasoned with 
" thee ; then shall I be cast out, though I have come 
" unto thee. God of eternal truth and grace ! I 
" cannot perish ! No, Glory to thy Name, I cannot 
" perish ! I shall be saved, now and evermore* Lord, I 
" believe, help thou my unbelief ." 

Let the Saviour also be put in remembrance of his 
wonted compassions to sinners. To this end, you will 
do well to consider the records the Evangelists have pre- 
served of the life and charities of the Son of God. 
What abundant encouragement may we derive from 
their history, to trust in Him, and to believe with all 
our hearts that we may have life through his name ! 
We see in it, that he came " not to condemn the world, 
but that the world through him might be saved/'' All 
the miracles he wrought while dwelling amongst us, 
were miracles of grace. It well becomes penitent sin- 
ners to plead before their Redeemer, as a ground of 
their hope, his own life and labours, when he was " a 
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." — " O Lord 
Jesus, King of Glory," yet Saviour of the lost, didst 
thou not give sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, 
and life to the dead? Didst not thou cleanse the 
lepers, and cast out devils ? Didst not thou " forgive 
sins?" Were not those "mighty works" performed in 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 395 

a moment ; by a touch, a word, a look ? And has thy 
name lost its virtue, and thine arm its power, and thine 
eye its pity ? Or art thou " the same to-day, yester- 
day, and for ever?" — "What are -> these which are 
arrayed in white robes ?" This great multitude, which 
cannot be numbered, " from all nations, and kindreds* 
and people, and tongues, that stand before the throne, 
crying, Salvation unto God?" — Methinks, O penitent, 
he that sitteth on the throne himself replies, " All of 
them were once sinners like unto thee ! But they were 
washed, but they were sanctified, but they were justi- 
fied in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit 
of God." — If then there be millions of sinners, who, 
saved on earth, are now inhabiting glory, there are 
millions of arguments, beside those that may be gathered 
from the gospel history, to warrant you to believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, that you may be justified. There 
is the same atoning blood to cleanse you, that sanctified 
them ; and the same Holy Spirit to give it all its 
efficacy to your hearts. On these grounds you may 
well ask in faith, nothing doubting, that you may 
receive pardon, and " that your joy may be full." Be 
encouraged then 

% To urge in humble confidence your supplications; 
" Let us plead together." 

There is a fine passage is the Book of Job, (which 
indeed shews that he was not unacquainted with the 
Jewish history,) that will illustrate this part of the text. 
Job. xxiii. 1 — 7. " Then Job answered Eliphaz and 
said, — Even to-day is my complaint bitter ; my stroke 
is heavier than my groaning. Oh that I knew where I 
might find him ! / would come even to his seat! I would 
order my cause before him, and Jill my mouth with argu- 

% c % 



396 SERMON XII. 

merits. I would know the words which he would an- 
swer me, and understand what he would say unto me. 
Will he plead against me with his great power ? No ; 
but he would put strength in me. There the righteous 
might dispute with him ; so should I be delivered for 
ever from my Judge." Here is a sinful worm intro- 
duced into the presence of the Almighty God. Weak- 
ness itself called upon to plead with might ! What an 
unequal contest ? " Will he plead against me? says 
Job, " with his great power P" Will He employ 
it to crush me, to put me to utter confusion ? No ; but 
he will exert it Jar me, his power shall be mighty on my 
behalf, for " he will put strength in me? He will im- 
part strength by giving Faith, so shall I be enabled 
" to take hold of his strength, that he may make peace 
with me, and he will make peace with me." (Isaiah 
xxvii. 5.) Then, being justified, or accounted righte- 
ous, " I might dispute with him," — make manifest 
before him my title to the promises as a child of God ; 
iC so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge," or 
judgment, the sentence of condemnation that lies against 
me. To this duty then you are now called by the 
Saviour himself ; — " Let us," says he, " plead toge- 
ther." 

Let the pleading begin on your part ; and let this be 
your encouragement, that the Holy Spirit will " help 
your infirmities." Here recollect the truths that have 
been advanced in illustration of the preceding sentence, 
" Put me in remembrance ;" and make a right use and 
application of them. As it regards yourself, you have 
no wisdom, no righteousness, no holiness of your own ; 
nothing but sinfulness and unworthiness, from your natal 
jiour up to the present moment. All your pleadings, 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 397 

therefore, must be drawn from some other source than 
your own merit. You must begin by an utter renun- 
ciation of all your own doings ; by the most absolute 
disclaiming of the least dependance on any thing you 
ever have done, or ever can do, by way of meriting the 
favour of God. All your arguments must be such as 
proceed from a full and an unqualified admission of your 
own guilt, a ready acknowledgment of past sinfulness, 
of your present undeservings, and of your utter help- 
lessness. Confession of guilt is indeed one of the most 
powerful pleas which a sinner can use with Christy for 
the obtaining of mercy. She who, in the days of his 
flesh, " stood at his feet behind him weeping," and 
bathing them with her tears, did effectually plead with 
him ; that silent confession of demerit was a plea not 
to be resisted, Jesus said unto her, " Go in peace." 

But saith the Redeemer, " Let us plead together:" 
Listen therefore to his pleadings with you. Now if you 
hearken to the voice of his Spirit, you will find that 
his pleading in the heart of a mourner exactly corres- 
ponds with his intercession before the throne of God. 
Before that throne he appears in the character of an 
advocate : " If any man sin, we have an Advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and he is the 
propitiation for our sins."' 1 It is because his propitiatory 
sacrifice has been accepted of the Father, that he be- 
comes our Advocate ; it is his atonement that renders 
his Advocacy so powerful and effectual on behalf of 
humbled sinners. You then have not to plead with an 
enemy, nor with a righteous judge ; but with your own 
Advocate, with your compassionate Saviour. His argu- 
ments, therefore, in this pleading, will correspond with 
your own. Renouncing your own righteousness, you 
2c3 



M 



398 SERMON XII. 

plead his merits ; he also pleads those merits as a reason 
why you should no longer doubt, but take him as " the 
Lord in whom you have righteousness and strength." 
His method of pleading will be by reminding you of 
the Divine Promises, and if there be any upbraiding at 
all on his part, it will be nothing more than is contained 
in these scriptures : " Hitherto have ye asked nothing 
in my name ; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy 
may be full." Thomas ! " Reach hither thy finger, and 
behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and 
thrust it into my side ; And be not faithless, but be- 
lieving !" — Seeing then that you have such a Redeemer 
to plead with, let me exhort you 

3. To claim in strong Faith the promised blessing : 
" Declare thou, that thou may est be justified." 

" All things are now ready :" Pardon is now about 
to be bestowed ; " he is near that justifieth you," and 
angels are waiting to rejoice over another heir of glory. 
The gospel has been preached to you, and the Spirit 
has accompanied the word; you have been humbled, 
and encouraged, and drawn by strong desire, and long- 
ing expectation for a present salvation. And still you 
are crying out, " I wait for thy salvation, O Lord." — 
" Behold," O penitent, " thy salvation cometh." No- 
thing is wanting" to present pardon, but thine own de- 
claration: "Declare thou, that thou may est be justi- 
fied." Dost thou inquire, "What must I declare?" 
Declare with all thine heart, " I believe that Jesus 
Christ is the Son of God." (Acts viii. 37.) I believe 
that he is My Saviour, My Lord, and My God ! He 
is all mine own. I take him for "my wisdom, my 
righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption !" 
« Christ is all in all !" 



HOPE FOR THE PENITENT. 399 

Lord, I believe thy precious blood, 
Which at the mercy-seat of God 
For ever doth for sinners plead, 
For me, even for my soul, was shed. 

It is enough ; I want no other Saviour, Christ is all- 
sufficient. " Plenteous grace with him is found, grace 
to cover all my sin." I will have none besides ; I want 
nothing but his cross, his blood, his righteousness, his 
intercession : I will not doubt one moment longer, I 
will no more say, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and 
my Lord forgotten me ;" but I now at this moment, give 
full credence to his word, and rest for ever satisfied 
with these eternal promises :— " For a small moment 
have I forsaken thee ; but with great mercies will I 
gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from 
thee for a moment ; but with everlasting kindness will 
I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer, 
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me ; for as I 
have sworn, that the waters of Noah should no more 
go over the earth ; so have I sworn that I would not be 
wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains 
shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but my kind- 
ness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the cove- 
nant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath 
mercy on thee," (Isaiah liv. 7 — 11.) 

Do ye indeed now believe ? And have you found 
rest unto your soul ? Hath God at this hour " blotted 
out your transgressions ?" " O praise the Lord, all ye 
nations ! Praise him, all ye people ! For his merciful 
kindness is great towards us: And the truth of the 
Lord endureth for ever. Hallelujah ! Praise ye the 
Lord ! u Sing, O Heavens, and be joyful O earth ! 
And break forth into singing O mountains I For the 



400 SERMON XII. 

Lord hath comforted his people, and hath had mercy 
on his afflicted. He hath made the mourner to hear 
joy and gladness, and has caused the bones that he had 
broken to rejoice. r) O thou child of God, we welcome 
thee as " a fellow-citizen of the saints, and one of the 
household of God." " Rejoice in the Lord alway ; 
and your joy let no one take from you." You need 
never come into condemnation any more. You need 
never lose your " first love ;" it is your happy privilege 
to " stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
made you free,*'' until pardoning love shall ripen into 
the perfect love of God. Be humbly believing, " hold- 
ing fast the beginning of your confidence, steadfast 
unto the end," and " you shall never fall : For so an 
entrance shall finally be ministered unto you abundantly 
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. ,, — " Thy sun shall no more go down ; 
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself : For the Lord 
shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy 
mourning shall be ended." 



SERMON XHI. 
THE GOSPEL COMMAND: 

A SERMON DELIVERED TO A CONGREGATION OF SLAVES, 



And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now commandeth 
all men every where to repent : Because he hath appointed a day in 
which he will judge the world in righteousness ; by that man whom he 
hath ordained. — Acts xvii. 30, 31. 

These words were spoken by a very great preacher 
of God's word. His name was Paul. This Paul was 
once an enemy to the religion of Jesus Christ, and a 
persecutor of all that were called Christians. But that 
was in " the times of his ignorance ;" as he himself con- 
fessed afterwards, that he did it " ignorantly and in 
unbelief." You see what a sad thing it is to be ig- 
norant, for it leads people to call evil, good ; and to 
think they are doing what is right, when, according to 
God's word, they are doing what is wrong. 

But Jesus Christ had mercy upon Paul, or Saul as 
he was then called. In a very wonderful manner Jesus 
Christ converted him ; that is, changed his mind, and 
heart, and life. He then made him a minister, and sent 
him to " preach the faith which he once destroyed." 
This circumstance shews us the riches of " the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ/" 



40£ SERMON XIII. 

Now this Paul, after his conversion, became a Mis- 
sionary, that is, one who leaves his own country, and, 
from love to the souls of the Heathen, goes to preach 
the gospel unto them. In this respect, we, that are 
called missionaries, strive to be like him, and are come 
to preach unto you. In our own country, England — 
that good country — we heard that you knew not Jesus 
Christ our Saviour : We loved you, though we had 
never seen you : And because we wish you to be good 
and happy in this world, and after you die, we have 
left our parents, and brethren, and sisters, and are come 
to teach you the way to heaven. May the Lord help 
you to understand what we say, that your souls may be 
saved. 

I. Before the gospel is brought to any people, the 
times in which they live are times of ignorance. 

Our hearts are not naturally wise, any more than 
good ; — if they were, there would be " no times of ig- 
norance." Think what this world would be, if there 
were no sun ; it would be a world of darkness, and of 
night. But when the sun arises it is day, and light- 
shines all around. Now where the gospel is not known, 
it is night to the souls of men : But when the gospel 
comes, " the people that sat in darkness, see a great 
light: 1 

Without the gospel, men are ignorant of God. They 
do not know who he is. They know not by what name 
to call him. No people on the face of the earth has 
ever yet found out a proper name for God, until they 
have learned it from the Bible. This shews that the 
heart of man is not good ; for if his heart were good, it 
would be like God, and so of itself would teach him who 



THE GOSPEL COMMAND. 403 

God is. The ignorance of man, therefore, as well as 
his wickedness, makes it plain that he is a fallen crea- 
ture. But the gospel teaches us to know God. It 
teaches us to call him the " Father Almighty, Maker of 
heaven and earth." It tells us, that he is not " like 
unto gold, or silver, or stone, or any image that man 
can make to resemble him.'" God cannot be seen ; but 
he sees all things. He is that great, wise, holy, and 
good Being, who dwells in heaven, and who looks down 
from heaven upon all the children of men. We can go 
no where to be hidden from him. " If we ascend up 
to heaven, he is there ; if we make our bed in hell, he 
is there also.'" " The darkness hideth not from him, 
but the night shineth as the day ; the darkness and the 
light are both alike to him." Ought you not to fear 
this Almighty God ? And whenever you are tempted 
to steal, or to do any bad thing, instead of saying to 
your heart, No one sees me, you should say, " Thou 
God, seest me ! How can I do this wickedness and 
sin against God !" 

Men are ignorant of themselves, without the gospel. 
They know not whence they came, what they are, nor 
whither they are going. They do not know that they 
have souls : And when they die, they cannot tell what 
will become of them. Some of you Africans think, that 
you go to your own country ; or to some place, where 
you will meet with your countrymen and friends. This 
is one of the devil's delusions to keep you from seeking 
that heaven where all good people dwell, " from every 
nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue*" and 
where all are for ever happy. But the gospel teaches 
us how man first came into being. It says, " We are 
all the offspring of God," All other creatures came 



404 SERMON XIII. 

from the earth, but man is the offspring of God. He 
is their Maker, but our Father. And he " hath made 
of one blood all nations of men that dwell on the face 
of the earth." In the beginning of the world, God 
made one man and one woman, named Adam and Eve; 
and from these two persons all mankind have descended. 
He only made one original pair, that the whole human 
race might be regarded as one family, living together 
with love, without envying one another. u God made 
man upright." But before he had any sons, he dis- 
obeyed God, and became a sinner ; hence it is that all 
mankind have become sinful. We are " conceived in sin, 
and shapen in iniquity ." Man dies, because he is a 
sinner. But what becomes of him after death ? This 
great question the gospel answers. It teaches us, that 
the soul of man never dies. The soul of man is that 
immortal principle within him which understands. If 
I were to go and preach- to the beasts of the field, they 
would not understand me, because the beasts have not a 
rational soul : But you understand me ; I speak a word, 
and the moment it has proceeded out of my mouth, the 
meaning is conveyed to the understanding of all in this 
congregation. But it is not the body that understands ; 
for if you call a dead man, he will not hear you ; it is 
only a living man that can understand. Whence it fol- 
lows, there must be a something within every living 
man which thinks, and knows, and understands, and 
fears, and loves ; and that is what we call " the soul." 
Now when a good man dies, his soul goes to God ; but 
when a wicked man dies, his soul goes to hell. 

Men do not know Jesus Christ, until the gospel makes 
him known. I can very easily prove this to you ; for, 
until you were brought here, you never heard of the 



THE GOSFEL COMMAND. 405 

name of Jesus. That is a very blessed name. Rightly 
understood, it teaches us every thing ; it teaches us that 
we are lost, and it brings salvation. What a blessing it 
is, that you have now an opportunity of hearing "Christ 
preached !" If you repent and believe on his name, you 
all will be made truly happy. The knowledge of Christ 
is peculiar to the gospel. The works of God,— the sun, 
and moon, and stars, — the heaven, and earth, and seas, 
— and all creatures and things that are in them, — make 
known God as the Creator, when the mind is enlight- 
ened by the Holy Spirit; but they do not give the 
faintest notion of a Redeemer, nor shew how guilty man 
may be saved. Thus is it " the times of ignorance" with 
men, until they receive the holy word of God. 

Not that men are excused, if they sin against God, 
because of their ignorance ; for, before the gospel comes, 
it is their duty, " to seek the Lord, if haply, by feeling 
after him, they might find him." Were Heathens to do 
so, certainly the Heathen would find him. But instead 
of feeling after him, they wander from him more and 
more, and " love darkness rather than light because 
their deeds are evil." Hence every generation becomes 
plunged in grosser ignorance, and the darkness thickens 
every succeeding year. This is God's way of punish- 
ing them for their depravity. When, therefore, we 
read in the text, " the times of this ignorance God 
winked at," we must not understand it to mean that 
God took no notice of their sins, and was not angry with 
them for it ; but only that he made due allowance for 
their ignorance so far as it was unavoidable ; and that 
he rather pitied than punished to the full their ignorance, 
even when it had been for a course of ages wilful. 
Hence, instead of leaving them for ever to walk in their 



406 SERMON XIII. 

own darkness, he sent them a clearer light than had 
ever before shone upon the world, even the light of the 
everlasting gospel. 

II. The gospel of Jesus Christ requires us to repent. 

Repentance is very much spoken of in the word of God. 

It is called the " foundation 1 ' of religion, because it 
is the first thing necessary to salvation. A man never 
does any thing to please God, until he repents of his 
sins. These are some of the passages that we read in 
the Bible concerning repentance : " Repent, and turn 
from all your transgressions ; so iniquity shall not be 
your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, 
whereby ye have transgressed ; and make you a new 
heart, and a new spirit ; for why will ye die, O house 
of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in the death of him 
that dieth, saith the Lord God ; wherefore turn and 
live ye. — Repent and be converted, that your sins may 
be blotted out. — Repent, and be baptized every one of 
you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of 
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. — 
Repent, and turn to God. — Jesus preached, saying, 
Repent ye, and believe the gospel. — Jesus said, Except 
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. — It was necessary 
for Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third 
day, that repentance and remission of sins might be 
preached in his name among all nations. — God com- 
mandeth all men, every where to repent." Thus, you 
see, the holy book, the Bible, says a great deal about 
repentance ; and it speaks to us about it in the plainest 
manner. And so necessary is repentance, that Jesus 
Christ himself, the great God and Saviour of the world, 
will not save any man without it. 



THE GOSPEL COMMAND. 407 

I shall explain to you in a few words what repentance 
is. It is " godly sorrow" for sin. It is called "godly 
sorrow" because it comes from God ; it is God's gift. 
So we read in the Bible ; " God hath exalted Christ to 
be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel, 
and forgiveness of sins." For this reason it is that there 
is no repentance in hell. There the wicked feel sorrow 
on account of punishment," and because of that "fiery 
indignation" which " devours" them ; but they have 
no "godly sorrow," because the Holy Spirit is not 
given to them. It is only in this life that man can re- 
pent ; t if he do not, in the other world, instead of 
repenting, he must perish. Now you all know what it 
is to feel sorrow. If any trouble befalls you, you cry ; 
if your wife or your children die, you weep, and some 
of you cry out, and make a great noise when you fol- 
low them to the grave. But did you never weep on 
account of your sins ? When the heart feels grief and 
trouble, because we have done what is evil, and a desire, 
leading us to pray to God that wc may do so no more, 
that is repentance. O let me exhort you to repent ! 
You that get drunk, you that curse, you that tell lies, 
you that steal, you that have two wives, you that are 
lazy, you that are always quarrelling, repent, repent, 
I beseech you ; for « if you die in your sins, where 
God is you can never come." 

Sin is the greatest evil in the world. It was the be- 
ginning of evils ; it is the continuance of all others ; and 
it is sin that leads down to hell. It was sin that caused 
Jesus Christ to die. Wonderful was the love of Christ 
to guilty man. He came from heaven to earth, to save 
him. But so wicked was man, that he put Christ to 
death, by nailing him to the cross ; and, as he hung 



408 SERMON XIII. 

upon the cross, a soldier plunged a spear into his side, 
that reached his very heart, from whence flowed blood 
and water. But Christ loved his enemies, and died for 
their salvation. Indeed, that gracious Saviour loved all 
mankind ; yea, he loved you, and he loves you now, and 
waits to bless and pardon all your souls. You will 
sometimes say, when we charge you to repent, that you 
are not so bad as many other people, and that you have 
never committed any very great sin. No ! But you have ; 
you have every one been guilty of the foulest crime 
that was ever committed on the earth. If you have not 
been " men-slayers, or murderers of fathers, or murder- 
ers of mothers ;" verily you have all been concerned in 
the death of the Son of God. You?' sins caused him to 
die. " He was wounded for your transgressions, he 
was bruised for your iniquities; the chastisement of your 
peace was upon him, that by his stripes you might be 
healed." Ah ! sinful man, thou hast pierced the side 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. O ! Look unto him whom 
you have pierced, and mourn. 

To mourn on account of sin, is the duty of every man. 
"God commandeth all men every where to repent." It 
is of no use for you to tell the preacher, that you cannot 
read, that you do not understand; the very excuse 
shews, that you do understand, for you would not 
wish to avoid a duty of which you had no idea. Take 
care then, that you do not fight against God. You 
know how to sin ; you may, therefore, know how to 
repent. To repent, is God's command, not mine. That 
command now comes to you ; to " all men every where." 
You would not repent in your own country. God has, 
therefore, by bringing you to this land, punished you 
for worshipping devils, and trusting to gree-grees^ 



THE GOSPEL COMMAND. 409 

(charms or amulets,) and a great many wicked things 
that you and your fathers have done. But mercy is 
mixed with the punishment, for he has brought you 
hither for good, that you may repent and be saved. 

Repentance is a present duty. God now commands 
it. You young people must not stay till you get old ; 
now, before your hearts are " hardened by the deceit- 
fulness of sin," let your heart be pained because of the 
sins of your youth. Flee temptation. Sin to please no 
one. Be obedient in every matter that is not sinful; but 
if allured to iniquity, you must " obey God rather than 
man. 11 Live not according to custom, but according to 
the Christian religion. And from this hour resolve, 
that you will be truly sorry for all that is past, and 
" go and sin no more." As to you that are old, and 
just trembling over the grave, you have not a moment 
to lose. " To-day, while it is called to-day,' 1 O turn 
unto the Lord. cc Seek ye the Lord while he may be 
found ; call ye upon him while he is near. Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he 
will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will 
abundantly pardon.'" 

But while I bid you repent, I must not forget the 
most important part of my whole sermon : * I mean that 
which relates to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is 
God. For this reason those who are baptized, are bap- 
tized in the " name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost." Baptism is the most solemn dedi- 
cation of a redeemed sinner to God. It is an acknow- 
ledgment of that right which none but God, or Jehovah, 
hath, to reign and rule over us, in time and to all eter- 
nity. As the Holy Spirit is God, he is the source of 

c 2 D 



410 SERMON XIII. 

all good, and must " work in us to will and do of his 
good pleasure," before we can have either inclination 
or power to repent, or pray, or do any good thing. This 
Spirit is now given to you ; for the Spirit is bestowed 
wherever God's command to repent comes. And God 
is willing, through Christ, to give you his Holy Spirit, 
in a still more abundant manner, that you may be en- 
lightened, convinced, converted, pardoned, or justified, 
and for ever saved. In closing then this part of the 
discourse, I would teach you one short prayer. Let 
me entreat every one of you to kneel upon your knees 
this night, and before you go to sleep, earnestly pray, 
" O Lord, for the sake of Jesus Christ, give me thy 
Holy Spirit." I repeat it over, that you may all per- 
fectly remember it : Say, " O Lord — for the sake of 
Jesus Christ — give me thy Holy Spirit." — Pray that 
prayer night and day, till God converts and saves your 
souls. And may he abundantly pour his Spirit on you 
all for the glory of his great name ! 

III. We must repent, because God will judge the 
world. " He hath appointed a day in which he will 
judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he 
hath ordained." 

God will judge the mankind by Jesus Christ. God 
the " Father judgeth no man" immediately in his own 
person, " but hath committed all judgment to the Son ; 
that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour 
the Father." " He hath given him authority to execute 
judgment, because he is the Son of man." It is Christ 
who shall "descend from heaven ;" he shall come "as 
the Son of man in his glory, and all the holy angels with 
him !" Hence he is called in the text " that man whom 



THE GOSPEL COMMAND. 411 

€k>d hath ordained," or appointed, to be the Judge. 
How grand, and solemn, and awful, will his coming be ! 
The earth shall tremble at his presence, when he is re- 
vealed from heaven. Angels in countless numbers attend 
him, and the archangel's mighty voice proclaims his 
coming, with the shouts of the heavenly host. Upon a 
great white throne the Judge sits. He calls aloud, 
Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment ! His voice is 
heard throughout the whole world. " The sea gives up 
the dead which are in it ; and death and hell deliver up 
the dead which are in them.'" " All that are in their 
graves hear his voice and come forth : And the dead, 
small and great, stand before God." And, amongst 
them, every one of you will be found. In a few years 
you will die and be buried, and your souls will go into 
the invisible world. But your bodies, that return to 
dust, will not be forgotten for ever. Your graves will 
open, your bodies will be raised up, your eyes that now 
look on me, shall see for themselves the great Judge, 
and the whole world assembled before him; and your 
ears shall hear that sentence of joy or misery which, 
according to the proceeding of that day, shall be just. 

For the world shall be judged in righteousness. 
Every man shall be judged according to a righteous 
law. Those who have heard the gospel shall be judged 
by the gospel. This is the law relating to them, " He 
that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he 
that believeth not, shall be damned." According to this 
law shall it be decreed in regard to them, "He that 
is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, 
let him be filthy still :" Or, " he that is righteous, let 
him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be 
holy still." The Judge will be impartial ; as " the 

2 d 2 



412 SERMON XIII. 

Judge of all the earth, he will do right," " rendering 
unto every man according to his works. 1 ' The wicked 
shall be placed on his left hand, and the righteous on 
the right : And it shall be made manifest of all whom 
he condemns, that he u gave them space to repent, but 
they repented not. 1 ' No man shall eternally perish 
because he was born in sin, or because he had sinned : 
But they who are lost will die, because they repented 
not, and did not turn from all their sins to God. Jesus 
Christ will not ask you, What country did you come 
from ? Were you rich or poor, slave or free, white or 
black ? But, Did you repent ? If not, you cannot say, 
We never heard of repentance ; for I have preached it 
unto you at this hour. But if you die without it, he 
will say, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels V But if you 
have repented, and believed on his name, you shall 
" find mercy in that day ;"" for the righteous reward 
Christ shall bestow, will be an eternal confirmation of 
that mercy which he shewed on earth in pardoning all 
your iniquities. He will pronounce, " Come, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world." 

O then let me conclude by exhorting you all to this 
great duty of repentance. As you close your eyes in 
sleep to-night, hear a voice sounding in your ears, Re- 
pent I Repent! While at your labour in the field 
to-morrow, hear the same voice, crying Repent ! And 
if you can remember no more of the sermon, do 
remember at least this one word, Repent! Think 
upon it. Think about it a great deal. Forsake your 
dances, and all your pleasures, and all your sins, and 
pray for repentance. And if you feel any sorrow for 



THE GOSPEL COMMAND. 413 

sin, and a desire to serve God and save your souls 
springing up in the heart, and a willingness to be fur- 
ther instructed in the way to heaven ; ask me an,y ques- 
tion at any time, and I shall be happy to teach you, and 
to direct you to a few good people, who will endeavour 
to help you on, in seeking the way to heaven. May 
God bless you all ! May he give you repentance for all 
your sins past up to this hour ! May he pardon, and 
save you, through our only Saviour Jesus Christ ! 
Amen ! 



■2 JD % 



SERMON XIV. 

CHRIST, OUR SAVIOUR, EXAMPLE, 
AND JUDGE. 



A SECOND SERMON DELIVERED TO A CONGREGATION OF 
SLAVES. 



Looking unto Jesus. — Heb. xii. 2. 



The Bible is a most blessed book ; it contains every 
thing is necessary to be known, in order to our salvation. 
All that we teach you is taken from the Bible ; we tell 
you nothing that is of our own inventing ; all that we 
say comes from the book of God. This ought to make 
you very attentive and serious while hearing. Our 
sermons contain much of God Almighty's own words ; 
and when we do not repeat his words, still we speak 
agreeably to the " oracles of God." 

It is your duty to learn as much of the Bible as you 
can. If you^have opportunity, you should attend Sun- 
day schools ; or, if you cannot attend, you should strive 
to send your children, that they may learn to read God's 
book. If you cannot do either, as often as your duties 
to, your master and to your families, for whose comfort 
you ought to provide by industry, will permit, you 
should request any good person you know to read a 
little of the scriptures unto you. And you should ac- 



CHRIST, OUR SAVIOUR, &C. 415 

custom yourselves to think on all you hear ; for it is by 
thinking that we are made wise, and are enabled to 
understand. 

My text is very short, but it is connected with a 
great many verses, indeed with the whole chapter 
that goes before it. That chapter is one of the finest 
histories in the world. It teaches us much in a few 
words. It is a history of the most remarkable events in 
the lives of the best and greatest men that have ever 
lived, from the beginning of the world down to the time 
of Jesus Christ. The names of some of them were 
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. I 
will tell you a little about them. Abel was the son of 
Adam, the first man. He was a good man, for he prayed 
to God through Jesus Christ ; but his own wicked bro- 
ther Cain killed him. Enoch was a very holy man, and 
led a good life before his family ; and God took him 
up to heaven without dying. Noah was a righteous 
man, when all mankind had become wicked. God was 
then so angry for the crimes of men, that he drowned 
the whole world with water ; only eight persons being 
saved alive ; namely Noah, and his wife, and Noah's 
three sons, and each of their wives. If any of Noah's 
sons had been so wicked as to have had two wives, God 
would have probably destroyed him also. Abraham was 
a wonderful man. He was remarkable for his faith in 
God and Christ. He was the father of all who are now 
called Jews. God called him to go out of his own 
country, because it was a sinful one ; and he went out, 
and travelled just as God directed him. This teaches 
us, that it does not matter where a man lives, whether 
in his own country, or amongst strangers, if he only fear 
and serve God. We should always think, that it is God 



416 SERMON XIII. 

who orders or permits every thing which befalls us ; so 
that we ought to " learn, in whatsoever state we are, 
therewith to be content." Joseph was the great grand- 
son of Abraham ; and when Joseph was a lad, about 
seventeen years old, his own brethren through envy, 
sold him for a slave. But Joseph was one of the best 
of men, and never ran away from his master, never stole 
from him, was always industrious and faithful ; and 
though very ill used without deserving it, he never once 
said any thing bad of his master, nor yet reviled his 
mistress, though she was a ve#y wicked woman. Moses 
also was descended from Abraham ; and by him God 
Almighty delivered the Jews out of the land of Egypt. 
Now after the apostle has mentioned all these good 
men, he gives us the advice in the text. He does not 
say, Looking 1 unto Ahram, or unto Moses ; but he directs 
us to one greater than all, saying, " Looking unto 
Jesus." As though he had said — You Christians are 
like persons running in a race ; you must not be slothful, 
nor suffer your attention to be diverted : All those good 
men of former times are looking to see how you exert 
yourselves ; but you must not look on the crowd of 
spectators, but only on Jesus, who stands at the end of 
the race, holding the prize in view. " So run that ye 
may obtain.'* 

I shall now explain the text in three particulars. We 
must be looking unto Jesus, 

I. As our Saviour. 

II. As our Example. 

III. As our Judge. 

I. As our Saviour. 

There is one name, the Bible tells us, that is above 



CHRIST, OUR SAVIOUR, &C. 417 

every name : And that is the mighty name Jesus ! 
That name signifies Saviour ; as it was said aMhe birth 
of Christ, " Thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he 
shall save his people from their sins. y) 

We need a Saviour, because we are sinners. Man is 
not now what he was when God made him. Then he 
was holy and happy, now he is sinful and miserable. His 
heart, his tempers, his desires, his thoughts, his words, 
his actions, are all evil. They do not become evil in 
process of time, but they are " evil from his youth up ;*" 
" he goes astray from the womb." And no wonder 
when "he is conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity." 
Need I prove to you, that you are sinners ? Your own 
conscience tells you, that you have done the things you 
ought not to have done, and have left undone what you 
ought to have done. Anger, envy, lust, idleness, drunk- 
enness, re veilings, are all sins in which you have in- 
dulged. You have not merely committed those sins, 
but you have loved them ; your heart has felt a delight 
in them, so that the scripture speaketh truly when it 
says, " The heart is deceitful above all things, and de- 
sperately wicked." Such being our sinfulness, and such 
the state of our heart, we are " guilty before God ;" and 
as we have no power to save our own souls, we must have 
been for ever lost, if Jesus Christ had not become a 
Saviour unto us. 

But Christ hath become our atoning Saviour. He is 
" God over all, blessed for ever." But, in " the fulness 
of time," he came forth from God, and, as it regards his 
human body and soul, he was " made of a woman." 
" He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of 
the Virgin Mary." After living a holy and useful life, 
he was charged with being a rebel against the govern- 



418 SERMON XIV. 

merit before Pontius Pilate. But, in reality, he had 
taught the people, as he teaches us, to render unto the 
king, what belongs to the king : While those who cla- 
moured against him were themselves, soon after, guilty 
of the very crime they laid to his charge, and brought 
destruction upon their whole country. But though Jesus 
Christ had " done no violence, neither was any deceit in 
his mouth ;" yet did he submit to violence ; and, that 
his Father's will might be done, he " became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross." He died on 
the cross, that we might never perish. " He gave him- 
self a ransom for many." " He died the just for the 
unjust, that he might bring us nigh to God." Through 
the shedding of his blood, a way was opened for God to be 
reconciled to the world, consistent with his justice, and 
holiness, and truth. And when Jesus had offered him- 
self a sacrifice for our sins, and had lain three days in 
the grave, he arose from the dead, and ascended up into 
heaven, where he is now exalted at the right hand of 
God, to pray for us. In this way did he become our 
Saviour. 

Christ is the only Saviour. " There is salvation in no 
other ; neither is there any other name under heaven 
given amongst men, whereby we must be saved." Minis- 
ters, who preach to you the word of life, cannot save 
your souls. We can only " preach unto you Christ 
Jesus the Lord." Millions of immortal spirits have been 
brought to heaven out of every nation, and kindred, and 
people, and tongue; but every one has been saved 
" through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Your 
own prayers and repentance do not, according to the law 
of works, merit for you pardon, or any blessing ; you 
must not trust in them, either in whole or in part, but 



CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR, &C 419 

solely in " the only wise God, and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ." 

Now as a Saviour, you must look unto him. My text 
says, " Looking unto Jesus." It is not enough to hear 
about him, and to be pleased with what you hear ; that 
will not bring his salvation to your heart, unless you 
look unto him. As he says, " Look unto me, and be 
ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and 
there is none else." Look unto him as a dying Saviour, 
till your hearts are broken and contrite. See him cruci- 
fied on the hill of Calvary for you. " Behold the Lamb 
of God, who taketh away the sin of the world !" Believe 
on his name, and you shall find pardon through the 
blood of the cross. God will give you comfort and 
peace : And his " love shall be shed abroad in your 
hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto you." His Spirit 
will be your comforter. He will witness, that you are a 
child of God ; and will enable you to " rejoice in hope of 
the glory of God." Look unto Jesus as your risen and 
interceding Saviour. This will increase your comfort. 
It will encourage you, in the midst of all your troubles 
on earth, to remember that God's own beloved Son is 
your constant Friend in heaven. You then shall find 
his words true, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I 
give unto you." But if we truly know Christ as a Sa- 
viour, we shall live as he lived below. 

II. Look unto Jesus as your example. 

" I have given you an example," said the Redeemer 
unto his own disciples, "that ye should do, as I have 
done to you." And St. Peter observes, u He hath left 
us an example, that we should tread in his steps." Christ's 
example is one of universal goodness. He was " without 



SE11M0N XIV. 



sin ; no guile was found in his mouth ; and he went about 
doing good." His example may be divided into two 
parts : He hath shewed us Iww to do good, and how to 
suffer ill. 

As to doing good : If we begin with his early years, he 
is an example of obedience to parents. Though he was 
the Son of God, yet as the Son of Man, he was dutiful 
to his mother, and to him whom people thought to be his 
father. He lived with them at Nazareth, and was " sub- 
ject unto them." This part of the life of Jesus Christ 
may teach you a great deal ; whether you be children, 
or men and women. You children should learn to imi- 
tate Christ. You should very much love your father 
and mother ; and do all you can to oblige them, and 
make them happy. You should never be disobedient, 
or sulky, or fret and cry, but say, / will try and be like 
the blessed Saviour when he was a child. And as to those 
of you who are grown up, and have children of your 
own ; still, if your parents are living, you owe them 
reverence, love, and obedience. You can never be re- 
leased from your duty to them, till they die ; and if you 
are good, you will not desire it. A christian slave will 
endeavour to be industrious in working his grounds, that, 
beside honestly maintaining his wife and children, he 
may have something to give to his poor old father or 
mother, to comfort them in their last days. 

Christ was an example of obedience to rulers. He 
had many temptations to be disobedient, and to make 
himself great in this world, by opposing those who were 
in authority, but he never listened to them. Indeed, 
his heart was so much set on that other and happier 
world, (may the Lord bring you all to it !) that he was 
quite dead to riches and worldly greatness, and chose to 



CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR, &C. 421 

be humble and poor. I have already told you how he 
said, " Render to the king, the things that are the king's :" 
And on another occasion, he wrought a miracle to pay 
what was unjustly demanded of him, by some who said 
to his disciples, " Doth not your Master pay tribute ?" 
Jesus Christ had one disciple, who was named Peter. 
Peter was a very warm, hasty man, which was a great 
fault in him. Afterwards, however, when he got 
more religion, he was cured of that evil. On the night 
that Christ was seized, this Peter, without the approba- 
tion of Christ, took a sword to defend him. Indeed, 
when some of his disciples thought of fighting for their 
Saviour, when he foretold his sufferings ; and began to 
unfold their purpose, saying, " Lord, behold, here are 
two swords," — Jesus cut them short, and would not per- 
mit them to go on with such unchristian discourse,- say- 
ing, " It is enough," let me hear no more of this matter. 
But, notwithstanding this reproof, Peter took a sword 
with him, and with it " struck off the right ear of the 
high priest's servant." The blessed Jesus healed his 
enemy, and rebuked his disciple. He sharply said to 
Peter, "Put up again thy sword into its place ; for all 
they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword." 
As though he had said, If you fight, I your Lord and 
Master will not protect and bless you. Such was the 
example of Christ ; and, after his resurrection, all his 
disciples imitated him. The wicked Jews rose against 
the Roman Governors, but our Lord's disciples were so 
far from supporting their countrymen, that they left their 
city, and country, and house, and fled to the mountains, 
and became strangers and pilgrims upon earth. And 
afterwards, when they wrote letters, which are called 
epistles, to Christians in different places, they told them 



4$& SERMON XIV. 

to " submit to governors, to honour the king, and to be 
subject to their masters, with all reverence." Now you 
must be looking to Jesus as your example. You must 
do nothing that Christ would not do, if he were in your 
place. You must obey your masters, and all magistrates 
and governors, not to get the praise of men, but that you 
may bring glory to Christ. Some people will say, " A 
poor slave can do no good in the world !" But I think 
a Christian slave can do a great deal of good. He cannot 
preach, he cannot make a book, and get fame as a wise 
and learned man : But his very station in life gives him 
an opportunity of setting such an example of Christian 
submission and obedience, as shall not only benefit his 
fellow-slaves, but also cause his Redeemer to be glorified 
in countries that he has never seen, and amongst people 
that he has never known. O be Christians ; be Chris- 
tians, and you will be every thing that is good. 

Christ was an example of universal benevolence. " He 
went about doing good." This was his only employment, 
of which he was never weary. He fed the hungry, he 
healed the sick, he was himself a slave, a servant of 
the lowest kind, to all the children of men. Christ had 
no pride, therefore he thought no person, however des- 
pised, unworthy of his attention ; nor any office of kind- 
ness, however mean, beneath his dignity to perform. He 
could not but do good to all who came to him, because 
he loved all ; (O with what an intense love !) for love is 
the strongest principle in the world, and the love of God 
is the mightiest kind of love. To do good ; was the joy 
of our Redeemer's heart. And it is still his joy : Nor 
can I possibly describe the richness and the greatness 
of those blessings he will bestow upon you, if you only 
repent of your sins, and seek him by prayer and faith. 



CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR, &C 423 

Now the apostle says, ■" Walk in love, as Christ also 
loved us." And again he gives us this excellent adviee, 
" Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, 
and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice ; 
and be ye " kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving 
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven 
you." Are you obedient to this command ? Say to your 
own heart, Have I any anger against any man in the 
whole world ? Do I wish ill to any body, though I 
cannot do him an injury ? — O if you have such a heart, 
an angry heart, a revengeful heart, you are not yet a 
Christian. If that heart be not changed before you die, 
I shall never see you in heaven. The Lord have mercy 
upon you, and give you a "new heart," for Jesus's sake. 
You must love every soul of man; parents, wife, chil- 
dren, master, fellow- slaves, countrymen, friends, ene- 
mies, the whole world. You must have a great big heart, 
full of love to all mankind, Live to be blest, and to do 
good. Love is a Christian's element, and goodness his 
delight. Christianity is the soul of charity. If a slave 
have plantains, or yams, or cassada in his grounds, 
more than his own family wants, and sees his fellow- 
slave in sickness and necessity, if he be a Christian, he 
will give him a little of what he can spare, to help him 
in the time of trouble. Now every one of you must look 
to Jesus as your example : And shew that you are 
Christians, not merely by talking of religion, but un- 
ceasingly by doing good of every sort to the uttermost 
of your power. Try to make every one on the estate on 
which you live, a Christian ; and the best method of 
being successful, is, by leading a steady, uniform, holy 
Christian life. 

As to suffering ill, we have a great example in the 
life of our Saviour. He was meek in all his conduct to- 



424 SERMON XIV. 

wards those who did him wrong. " When he was revil- 
ed, he reviled not again : When he suffered, he threat- 
ened not ; but committed his cause to him that judgeth 
righteously ." His conduct affords the best explanation 
of those words spoken in his ministry : " I say unto you, 
that ye resist not evil : But whosoever shall smite thee 
on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." We 
know this is not human nature, but it is Christianity, which 
is superior to human nature, and makes a man greater 
than himself. Strive not then with your fellow slaves, 
nor with any man ; but invariably bear, forbear, and 
forgive. And " keep thy tongue also from evil.'" As 
the apostle says, " Let every man be swift to hear, and 
slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man 
worketh not the righteousness of God." " The tongue is 
a very unruly member :" But if you pray for grace to 
keep you from anger, you will easily govern the tongue. 
Jesus was always resigned to the will of God. In his 
deepest agonies he said, " Father ! thy will be done." 
Look unto him, that you may thus become universally 
resigned to the will of your heavenly Father. It is writ- 
ten in the word of God, " My sou, despise not thou the 
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art re- 
buked of him : For whom the Lord loveth he chasten- 
eth, and scourgeth every son whom he reeeiveth." As 
these chastenings come from the love of God, let them 
increase your love to him. 

Now if you be looking to Jesus as your Saviour and 
Example, in the manner already described, you will 
have no cause to fear either death or the judgment day. 
You will be enabled with comfort 

III. To look unto Jesus as your judge. 

That great day is approaching, when the Lord Jesus 



CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR, &C. 425 

shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 
in flaming fire : He will then take vengeance on them 
that know not God, and that have not obeyed the 
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they shall be 
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence 
of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," But 
those who have looked unto him, and who have been 
saved by him in this life, " shall have boldness in the 
day of judgment, 11 and "not be ashamed before Christ 
at his coming." For in truth, in his character as a Judge, 
he will only be unto them more fully a Saviour. "Look- 
ing,"" says the apostle, " for that blessed hope, and the 
glorious appearing of the great God, even our Saviour 
Jesus Christ. 11 And again, " To them that look for him 
he shall appear the second time, without sin, unto salva- 
tion." See then what a blessed thing it is to be a Chris- 
tian. A Christian has an eternity of felicity to hope for, 
and not a moment's misery to fear. Live then according 
to the commandments of God : And be always waiting 
for the coming of Christ. Live each moment, as though 
that moment the "judgment was about to beset, and 
the books opened.' 1 Lo ! Eternity is here. 

Finally : The exhortation in my text is applicable to 
all men, and to every state and condition of life. — 
Wicked men ! Look to Jesus ! Why should you die, 
since he has died to save you ? O turn to him ; and he 
will bless and not destroy you. — You that sorrow for 
sin, look to Jesus : He waits to pardon you at this hour. 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved. 11 — Christians ! Look unto Jesus. Do not look 
too much at the professors of religion. Do not stumble 
at the imperfections discoverable in their character ; no, 
nor yet if they fall into sin. Christ and Christianity are 

2 E 



SERMON XIV. 



ever the same, however men may change; look off 
from man, and look for salvation, and for an example, to 
the great Redeemer alone. Be looking unto Jesus 
throughout life, whether in joy or sorrow, in health or 
sickness, in tribulation or in comfort and peace. Look 
unto him by faith, as the eye grows dim in death ; and 
you shall " see him standing at the right hand of God," 
smiling on a poor dying worm, and beckoning you up to 
his throne. And your happy spirit shall be carried by 
angels into his blissful presence, " and so shall you be 
for ever with the Lord." May Jesus save us all. that, 
with the multitude of the redeemed, we may cry, "Bless- 
ing, and honour, and glory, and power, be-unto him that 
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever 
and ever !" Amen ! Amen ! 



FINIS. 



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JOHN and CHARLES WESLEY ; with some Account 
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of their Family : Comprehending an Account of the great 
Revival of Religion, in which they were the first and 
chief instruments. By the Rev. Henry Moore, only 
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* # * This Work, compiled from original documents, some of which 
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Church. The first volume contains a beautiful Portrait of Mr. 
Wesley, taken when he was sixty-three years of age, and represents 
him as preaching in the open air. The second volume is ornamented 
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of Mr. John Wesley, taken when he was an aged man, and within 
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5. THE LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FLETCHER, 

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Christ. Collected and Published by the Rev. Melville 
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Notes of Sermons, bear date the first few years of his ministry. The 
Pastoral and Familiar Letters, of which the volume chiefly consists, were 
written from the period of Mr. Fletcher's conversion to within a 
few days of his decease. 

7. THE LIFE of MRS. MARY FLETCHER, Consort 
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Salop ; compiled from her Journal, and other Authentic 
Documents. By the Rev. Henry Moore. Sixth Edition, 
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8. AN EARNEST APPEAL TO MEN OF REASON 
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Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. Ninth 
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*** Mr. Wesley's " Appeals (' Apologies' they would have been called 
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their justness. It is certain they have convinced many persons who 
were deeply prejudiced ; and those too of considerable learning. It 
has been remarked, that those who truly preach the gospel, do it With a 
flaming tongue. I am ready to make a similar remark respecting these 
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manifest iu them ; and I cannot but earnestly recommend them to all, 
who desire to know ' what spirit he was of,' while contending against 
almost the whole world ; and whether it really was for the truth of God 
he so contended." — Moore's Life of Mr. Wesley. 



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MEMOIRSof SUNDAY-SCHOLARS. 
GIRLS. Part III. Containing Memoirs of 
Elizabeth Goodwin Wakefield, the Sunday- 
Scholar, and Mary Ann Edge. 32mo. 
Price 2d. 

INSTRUCTIVE HISTORIES. Con- 
taining the Sailor-Boy's Narrative, The 
Lame Schoolmaster, and The Young Drum- 
mer. 32mo. Price 2d. 

MEMOIR OF ELIZABETH JONES, 

a little Indian Girl, who lived at the River- 
Credit Mission, Upper Canada. 18mo. 
Price 4d. 

MISSIONARY STORIES, for Chil- 
dren and Young Persons ; designed to im- 
press upon the Minds of Youth a concern for 
the Salvation of the Heathen. By the Rev. 
Robert Newstead. 18mo. Price 4d. 



NOTICES RELATIVE to the IDOL- 
ATRY and DEVIL-WORSHIP of CEY- 
LON, &c. By the Rev. Robert Newstead. 
18mo. Price 6d. 

ANECDOTES of the SUPERSTI- 
TIONS of BENGAL : for Young Persons. 
By the Rev. Robert Newstead. 18mo. 
Price 8d. 

FRAGMENTS for YOUNG PEO- 
PLE, on Seventeen Important Subjects. 
18mo. Price 8 d. 

ELIZA and EMMA; or, the Power 
of Divine Grace illustrated in Death-Bed 
Scenes. By a Lady. 18mo. Price lOd. 

MISSIONARY MEMOIRS: princi- 
pally drawn from the Wesleyan Mission- 
Schools in Ceylon. By the Rev. Robert 
Newstead. Price Gd. 



MEMOIR OF MISS B- 

cutta. 32mo. Price 2c?. 



of Cal- 



MEMOIRS OF MISS MARY APPS, 
of Staplecross. By Thomas Collins. 18mo. 
Price 6d. 

GRACE THE PREPARATION FOR 
GLORY. Exemplified in Memoirs of Miss 
Anne Hill, of Fallybroom, Daughter of the 
late Rev. William Hill. By John Ratten- 
bury. 18mo. Price 6 d. 






This day is published, in Demy \2mo., Price Is., 

TEMPORIS CALENDARIUM; 

OR, 

AN ALMANACK 

FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1839, 

Containing the Calendar of Remarkable Days and Terms, Meteorological and 
Weather Tables, Astronomical Occurrences, Tables of the Sun, Moon, and Tides; 
Account of the Solar and Lunar Eclipses ; Proper Lessons for every Sunday in the 
Year; Various useful Tables; and a complete List of the Principal Fairs in England 
and Wales, &c, &c. 

BY WILLIAM ROGERSON, 

GREENWICH, KENT. 

THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL IMPRESSION. 



PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. 
I. 

PRAYERS FOR THE USE OF CHRISTIAN FAMILIES. 

With an Essay on Family Religion, and a Table for the 

Profitable Reading of the Scriptures. 

In one Volume, 8vo. 

II. 
A LIFE OF LADY MAXWELL. 

Abridged and improved by the Rev. William Atherton. 
In one Volume, duodecimo. 

III. 

YOUTHFUL PIETY; 

Being brief Memorials of Children of Wesleyan Ministers. 
In one small Volume, 18mo. 

IV. 

Vol. IX. of 
A LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Edited by Thomas Jackson. 

Containing the Lives of Dr. Henry Hammond, the Earl of Rochester, and 

Dr. Thomas Manton. 



V. 

A NEW PORTRAIT OF THE REV. JOSEPH BENSON. 

From an original Painting by the late J. Jackson, R. A. 
Quarto Proofs on India paper, 2s. 6d. ; Quarto prints, Is. 6d. 



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